Head of Taiwan's disease control center leads delegation to Tokyo bird-flu talks

This article was written by Shih Ying-ying and published by the Taiwan Journal on January 20, 2006. It reports that a delegation from the Department of Health's Center for Disease Control recently attended the Japan-WHO Joint Meeting on Early Response to Potential Influenza Pandemic in Toyko.

The international meeting was sponsored by the World Health Organization and the Japanese ministries for health and foreign affairs. About 130 delegates from 22 countries around the world attended the event. The participants discussed the issues and challenges surrounding a rapid response to an influenza pandemic. A drafted action plan called for a task force to be set up to increase the detection and early response capabilities in case of a disease outbreak. It also called for collaboration between Asian nations, the World Health Organization and other partners.

Although Taiwan is currently not a member of the World Health Organization, this was the second time the nation's representatives were invited to attend a WHO-sponsored avian-flu prevention conference. Taiwan has sought to join the World Health Organization as an observer since 1997.

More detailed information about Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization is provided in this article.