Taiwanese health official invited to observe bird-flu conference

This article was written by Shih Ying-ying and published by the Taiwan Journal on November 11, 2005. It reports that two Taiwanese representatives are invited to observe a global conference on avian influenza and human pandemic influenza, which will be held in Geneva from November 7 to 9.

The two Taiwanese representatives are Kuo Hsu-sung, head of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control under the Department of Health, and Ho Mei-hsiang, an associate researcher in epidemiology and virology from the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top research institute.

The global conference is organized by the World Health Organization, with delegates from more than 150 member countries attending. Other co-sponsors of the conference include the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Bank.

The focus of the global conference will be on world efforts to combat the H5N1 bird flu virus. Taiwan's attendance at the conference is noteworthy because this is the first time that the country, currently not a member of the World Health Organization, is invited to participate in a WHO event of such scale and significance.

In addition to the global conference, the two Taiwanese representatives will also visit the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche for talks regarding Taiwan's request for permission to produce Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug that has been effective in the treatment of bird flu.