Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-04
By: CNA

Chen Meng-yu, a physician at Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said

Dr Chen reports on the MERS situation in South Korea after her visit, Taipei, June 3. (Photo/CNA)

Wednesday on her return from South Korea that health authorities there have initiated adequate but belated measures against the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Chen, who was in South Korea for a week to observe the MERS situation there, said the country’s authorities took a week to initiate a number of measures after the first patients were hospitalized with the virus. Testing efforts, however, were inadequate, said Chen, who met with health officials and Taiwanese communities in South Korea to raise awareness of the MERS outbreak.

She said that when she arrived in South Korea on May 28, local media coverage of the MERS outbreak was sparse but picked up after the news of the second wave of infections broke.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/28
By Tyson Lu and Christie Chen, CNA staff reporters

No more than a year ago, the forests in Yanping Township in rural Taitung County

MERS-CoV electron micrograph

were green and tranquil. Then suddenly, backhoes and bulldozers began marching up the sides of pristine hills and mountains in rapid succession, knocking down trees to clear land for ginger farming.

An employee at the Yanping Township Office, who can see one of the mountain tops from his office, told CNA that he sees the machines digging away every day, turning bamboo forests into land distinguished by its yellow soil.

“The plot of yellow soil land was originally one acre large, but now it’s over two acres,” he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/27
By: Lung Pei-nin and Maubo Chang

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) Taiwan spent more than NT$600 billion (US$25.15 billion) for medical care under its national insurance program in 2014, with dialysis for patients with kidney disease accounting for the biggest share, according to information released Wednesday by the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA).

NHIA official Wang Fu-chung said the country’s hospitals reported more than 615 billion points’ worth of medical services in 2014, with each point receiving NHIA reimbursement of NT$0.9.

In the category of chronic kidney failure, however, each point was rewarded with only NT$0.82 in NHIA funds because the total spending by all hospitals was way in excess of the budget allocated for that type of treatment, Wang said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/19
By: Chen Ching-fang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) A batch of intravenous saline solution found to be contaminated with bacteria has entered hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, causing infections among 12 patients to whom it was administered, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) said Tuesday.

The CDC said it has been notified that as a result of the contamination, 12 patients at Taipei Veterans General Hospital have been infected with Ralstonia pickettii, a type of bacteria found in moist environments such as soils, rivers and lakes.

The patients were all treated Monday for the bacterial infections and four of them were discharged from hospital Tuesday, Taipei Veterans General Hospital said.     [FULL  STORY]