“It’s important to monitor emerging infectious diseases, especially in this region because we are near to China. In addition to SARS, there was an H1N1 Avian Flu in 2005, an H7N9 Avian Flu and now Covid-19,” explains Taiwan’s vice president, Chen Chien-jen.
“In Taiwan we didn’t practice mass testing because among 395 cases, only 55 were locally transmitted, and the infection source could not be traced in only ten cases. If many cases have no known infection sources then you have to do mass testing,” he explains.
The Vice President says that mass testing may not always be efficient or cost effective but it is a priority for high-risk group.
“I don’t know why the WHO did not take actions as quickly as they did for H1N1 or SARS. The WHO didn’t invite us to an emergency meeting in January. Before that we already requested China’s CDC to send our two experts to Wuhan to look at the situation. Based on [their] observation and personal dialogue we found the situation was quite severe already in mid-January,” he explains.
“When we asked about close contact tracing and the care of patients with mild symptoms, we didn’t get a very good response. If close contact tracing can be done then the disease won’t be spread by the patient.”
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