Taiwan saw declines in HIV and gonorrhea cases this year, but syphilis infections rose, with the sharpest increase among people aged 15 to 24, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) told a news conference yesterday.
From January to last month, syphilis cases among those aged 15 to 24 increased 9 percent year-on-year, prompting the CDC to expand free screening services for young people starting next year.
CDC spokesperson Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said at that the number of medical institutions offering free rapid syphilis testing to people aged 24 and under would be increased from 18 to 79 next year, with capacity for about 10,000 screenings.
Photo: CNA
To strengthen prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the CDC launched an anonymous STI consultation service on July 1, providing one-on-one confidential counseling at 14 hospitals nationwide.
Eligible people aged 24 and under, including students, can also receive free rapid syphilis testing.
Between July and last month, the anonymous consultation service recorded 1,455 visits, mostly involving questions about STI knowledge, testing, symptoms and treatment, CDC data showed.
As of Nov. 30, Taiwan recorded 810 new HIV cases and 5,873 gonorrhea cases this year, down 12 percent and 17 percent respectively from the same period last year.
In contrast, syphilis cases rose 2 percent to 9,072 nationwide. Among those aged 15 to 24, new cases increased from 1,587 to 1,722 over the same period, marking a 9 percent rise, the CDC said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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