Membership of WHO a vital part of flu battle
The World Health Report 2007, issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), talks of the importance of co-operation and information-sharing among countries in the fight against disease. It emphasises that more resources are required to establish a seamless global disease-prevention network.
I agree with the importance the WHO attaches to health security, as once a gap appears in that security system, epidemics can spread with alarming rapidity and seriously impact the global economy and trade.
Taiwan, being in the West Pacific, plays a vital role in disease prevention. Every winter, nearly 1.25 million birds comprising 351 species migrate from Siberia and China to Taiwan. They stay for the winter or continue on to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, or Australia. In the event of an outbreak of a lethal strain of bird flu that is highly communicable between human beings, the exclusion of Taiwan's 23 million people from the WHO could make it extremely difficult for the global health network to control the international spread of the disease.
However, Taiwan continues to be excluded from the International Health Regulations (2005) notifiable disease reporting system and is thus unable to immediately access information on disease outbreaks in other parts of the world or report local outbreaks to the WHO. Moreover, the WHO Secretariat and China signed a secret memorandum of understanding in 2005, stipulating that the WHO must receive clearance from Beijing before engaging in any interaction with Taiwan.
Undeniably, this agreement seriously hampers disease prevention efforts and violates the rights of Taiwan's people.
Following the shigellosis outbreak in Denmark associated with baby corn exports from Thailand in September 2007, for example, the WHO conveyed the news to China, but it took China 10 days to notify Taiwan about this health threat. Luckily, our Department of Health confirmed that none of the affected corn had been imported. This example underlines the risk incurred by leaving Taiwan out of the global health network.