A vaccine for enterovirus 71 (EV-71) is undergoing clinical testing and might go to market next year, pediatricians said yesterday in Taipei at the release of a book about Taiwan’s fight against the disease since the 1998 epidemic that killed 78 children.
Prior to 1998, Taiwan had only had occasional enterovirus cases, but a fatal case in an eight-year-old girl that year led to a nationwide epidemic, Huang Li-min (黃立民), chairman of National Taiwan University Hospital’s pediatrics department and one of the book’s executive editors, said at the event at the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Outbreaks of the disease occur every few years, usually during the summer, and the virus is tenacious as it can survive gastric acid to reach the intestines, where it can enter the bloodstream, or sometimes cause limb paralysis, he said, adding that younger children are more susceptible to it.
While experts have come to realize how the 1998 epidemic occurred and how virus infection led to certain symptoms, more research is needed on how to prevent the disease and improved treatment, he said.
Taiwan has been trying to develop a vaccine for EV-71 since 2000, but progress has been slow due to clinical testing difficulties and a stricter legal framework, said former minister of health and welfare Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延), now chair of the National Health Research Institutes board of directors.
Taiwan can be ranked top in the world in enterovirus studies, but China has been catching up, having launched EV-71 vaccines and published more research papers, he said.
Vaccine development in Taiwan was initiated by the Centers for Disease Control and the institutes, and a vaccine is now undergoing clinical testing by pharmaceutical firms and could be launched next year, Huang said.
Given the disease’s prevalence in Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan is sharing its data with those nations and helping train their scientists, he said.
Given the prevalence of studies on EV71, more research needs to be done on enterovirus 68 to find out why it tends to affect patients’ nervous systems and why early diagnosis is difficult, Huang said.
Despite Taiwan’s internationally acclaimed achievements in tackling the disease, the mutability of enterovirus species and the loss of research talent remain big challenges in studying the disease, said Shih Shin-ru (施信如), director of Chang Gung University’s Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS