President Ma Ying-jeou visited the Central Epidemic Command Center for H7N9 today. In face of the H7N9 epidemic in the mainland China, Ma instructed government agencies to work all out for the prevention of influenza A (H7N9), and urged all Taiwan residents to stay alert, keep good personal hygiene, and then lead a normal life without being panic. 

H7N9 flu has posed a health threat for the nationals, and President Ma is very concerned with the epidemic information. He specially visited the Command Center today to inspect the operation, and made affirmative comments on the hard work and effort of the Command Center’s staff. Now that the interaction across the strait has intensified, the President gave the directive that we should adopt the attitude of “being lenient in assessing the enemy; being stringent in overcoming the enemy”, and make sure proper quarantine inspection measures are in place and all agencies work cooperatively, in order to prevent the disease from invading the country. The President also indicated that Taiwan might form an alliance with other countries and international organizations for joint prevention of influenza A (H7N9). 

Commander Chang Feng-yee elaborated and analyzed the possible development of the epidemic in his presentation to the President, pointing out that the mainland government has kept monitoring and reporting severe influenza cases, and popularized the test kit. The medical care units have also ened their alertness as they expect more sporadic cases in the near future. 

In addition, the two disease prevention experts that the Command Center sent to Shanghai on April 6 returned to Taiwan yesterday (April 9). The two experts stated that according to the data provided by the mainland China, H7N9 is still in the bird-to-human transmission stage now, with no definite case of human-to-human transmission yet. In Shanghai City, about half of the confirmed H7N9 cases have history of poultry or livestock contact, and the remaining half are mostly elders aged above 50 with chronic diseases, for which the source of infection has yet to be confirmed. The two experts met with the chief of the mainland’s health department, officials of the Shanghai City’s health bureau, and virologists of the disease control center during their stay in Shanghai to collect information about the epidemic surveillance and surveys; they also paid on-site visits to two infectious disease-designated hospitals, and exchanged experiences in taking care of H7N9-infected patients and practices of infection control. 

Currently, H7N9 affected areas in the mainland China include Shanghai City, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province. After confirming with the health authority of the mainland China, cumulative incidence in the mainland China totaled 28 now (with 9 deaths), including 13 people in Shanghai, 2 in Anhui, 8 in Jiangsu, and 5 in Zhejiang. In Taiwan, a total of 5 suspected cases were reported from noon yesterday to noon today; all were reported by medical care institutions. The possibility of H7N9 infection was denied in 3 cases, and the other 2 were still under examination. Besides, the 7 specimens under examination as announced in the press conference yesterday noon all showed negative results for H7N9 in lab test (2 were H1N1 positive, 1 was H3N2 positive, and the rest were negative). 

The latest updates about the epidemic and related information are available at the “H7N9 Flu” page of the Center for Disease Control website (http://www.cdc.gov.tw). 

Alternatively, citizens may also call the toll-free reporting and care hotline 1922, or 0800-001922 disease prevention hotline if short-number calls cannot be made with your phone.