In response to the World Health Organization’s decision to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert to phase 6 and declaration of a pandemic of moderate severity at midnight on June 12, 2009, the twelfth meeting held by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) was convened by Premier of the Executive Yuan Liu at noon on June 12, 2009.Taking the guidelines issued to Ministers of Health in countries around the world by WHO and domestic experts’ advices into consideration, the following six decisions were reached in the meeting:
1. Expedite the purchase and stockpile of antiviral drugs and personal protective equipment for the second wave of pandemic influenza A (H1N1).
2. Further expand the surveillance of the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus to replace the existing method of case reporting by clinicians to the public health authority.
3. Further reinforce the capacity of medical institutes by integrating the National Health Insurance with other relevant medical resources in order to provide more care to patients.
4. It was suggested that major international events such as the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung and the 21st Summer Deaflympics in Taipei to be proceeded as planned.
5. A special statute was drafted and submitted to the Legislative Yuan by the Executive Yuan for approval.
6. The general public should be urged to follow government disease control policies.
On June 11, 2009, WHO forwarded guidelines on recommendations regarding the WHO’s decision to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert to phase 6 and declaration of a influenza A (H1N1) pandemic to Ministers of Health around the World, including our Health Minister Yeh.The guidelines recommend focusing national efforts on administering appropriate care to patients and providing accurate and timely information concerning the pandemic and government measures to the public instead of carrying out measures such as closing borders or restricting international travel.Further, WHO considers the overall level of clinically severe or fatal cases of respiratory illness in countries around the world is similar to the level seen during local seasonal influenza. As a result, WHO declared the pandemic to be of moderate severity. In addition, WHO recommended countries in transition, including Taiwan, to collect detailed information on the first 100 cases to asses the severity of the disease at the national level. However, WHO also recommended discontinuing contact tracing if the value of the information collected drops because such an effort is very resource-intensive.Moreover, antiviral drugs should be reserved for treatment of patients.
At the meeting, Premier of the Executive Yuan Liu indicated that the government was not surprised about the WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level because the government has been closely monitoring the development of the epidemic.More importantly, the national stockpile of medical resources and personal protective equipment has been replenished and the government will continue to commit resources to its disease control efforts accordingly.Since this year is also the first year Taiwan participated in the World Health Assembly, Taiwan has been able to stay in line with the international community and take part in the international response to the global influenza A H1N1 pandemic.On the other hand, the Premier also expressed confidence in the level of healthcare in Taiwan and the National Health Insurance.Furthermore, the Premier assured that care provided to minority groups and people living in remote areas will be further reinforced.The Premier once again urged the public not to panic because the government has prepared all the essential public health actions and urged the public to follow the government disease control policies in order to minimize the impact of the epidemic. The World Games 2009 to be held in Kaohsiung and the 21st Summer Deaflympics to be held in Taipei will be proceeded as planned and the government will ensure proper public health measures are implemented.