Taiwan assures neighbors of promoting global health security
The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan gave assurance that it can be relied on by its neighboring countries when it comes to global health security.
Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Dr. Tzou- yien Lin said they “closely monitor international trends to optimally promote and enhance health security” in the face of various threats like the Severe Acute Respiratory Sydrome in 2003, Ebola virus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Zika virus.
“These are threats we understand a little about – yet what we really have to fear are the threats we cannot name. Even as global health experts gather, new and unmapped outbreaks can rapidly spread across the globe,” he noted.
Last year, Taiwan confirmed a total of 43,419 indigenous cases of dengue, one of the most severe dengue outbreaks since 1987.
The statement said that since Zika virus is transmitted by the same mosquito species that transmits dengue virus, Taiwan also faces increased risk of a Zika virus outbreak.
“Because we know infectious diseases do not respect boundaries, Taiwan has fulfilled its International Health Regulations (IHR) responsibilities since 2009, when we were officially included in the implementation framework,” it added.
Taiwan had established an IHR contact point with the World Health Organization to enable regional and global responses to public health threats.
The minister added they assessed and improved our sur- veillance and response capacities to meet Annex 1B IHR core requirements in a timely manner.
In response to Ebola in West Africa, Taiwan provided 100,000 sets of personal protective equipment and donated $ 1 million to international Ebola aid efforts in 2014.
It organized four training workshops for health and laboratory workers from 14 countries to improve regional capacity to detect and and respond to Ebola, MERS, dengue and Zika, among other undertakings.
“As we continue to improve our influenza-related planning, we retain a global vision and work hard to maintain the widest possible international health networks,” Dr. Tzou-yien Lin said.
“Nothing less than this multilateral and multisectoral approach is needed to fight infectious diseases. While still hope for better alignment with the international community, we are reorganizing at home to pursue best policies and practices,” he added.
He assured that Taiwan will continue to pursue bilateral, multilateral and research cooperation.
“We can be relied on to assist our Asia Pacific and Southeast Asian neighbors as they enhance their own response capacities,” he said.