The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) conducted a tabletop exercise on April 13, 2011 to strengthen the Centre’s response capabilities and to ensure full preparation for managing highly contagious infectious diseases.
The commander of this exercise is Dr. Feng-Yee Chang, the Director- General of Taiwan CDC. This exercise followed the last year’s scenario, simulating the management of the first imported case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever. during the exercise, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) instructed the Communicable Disease Control Medical Network (CDCMN) to arrange a cross-regional transfer of the patient to the Infectious Disease Prevention Center (IDPC), formerly a military hospital in Tainan committed to isolating patients. The purpose of the exercise is to review the various centers’ preparedness and enhance cooperation between the central government and local department of health in matters related to disease prevention and control activities.
This exercise also tested the capability of laboratories, activation of CECC and IDPC, the patient transfer mechanism, and dispatching of medical teams and medical resources, etc. The participants of the exercise include the Regional Commanding Officers of CDCMN (Yin-Ching Chuang and Yao-Shen Chen) and the Regional Deputy Commanding Officers of CDCMN ( Wen-Chen Ko and Jien-Wei Liu,) and the Deputy Director of Taiwan CDC, Wen-Yi Shih.
Taiwan CDC points out that the Tainan Military Hospital was taken over by Taiwan CDC to establish IDPC in 2004. IDPC was constructed with standard negative pressure isolation rooms, laboratories, a sewage treatment plant and other related facilities. Education and training courses are regularly offered to improve health workers’ capacity for emergency preparedness and response. It is hoped that communication and cooperation between the central and local health authorities can be further improved and medical resources can be allocated more effectively through conducting regular exercises and training courses.