On September 2, 2016, Dr. Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) was sworn in as the new Director-General of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC). Dr. Chou was previously the Deputy Director-General before his appointment as the new Director-General of the agency. Among his other previous positions, he was the Health Commissioner of the Taipei County Health Department.

The swearing-in ceremony was presided over personally by the Health and Welfare Minister Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延). Besides acknowledging Dr. Chou’s diverse background and experiences, Minister Lin also commended Dr. Chou’s efforts and involvement in confronting all scales of outbreaks in the past, including the H1N1 pandemic, the H7N9 outbreak, the rabies outbreak among animals, the MERS outbreak overseas and the dengue outbreak that occurred in Kaohsiung City and Tainan City last year, had demonstrated Dr. Chou’s impeccable skills and abilities in planning, organizational leadership, supervision, as well as communication and coordination with the local governments and the media. Minister Lin expects that under the leadership of Dr. Chou, Taiwan CDC will continue to work hard to ensure the health and wellbeing of the people in Taiwan and strengthen international cooperation to close the gap in global disease detection and fight against the threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, winning the public’s trust and praise.

During the ceremony, Dr. Chou expressed his gratitude to Minister Lin for the trust invested in him. In addition, Dr. Chou pointed out that infectious disease prevention and control should no longer just be seemed as fighting a battle because it is literally fighting a battle and it is a battle against bacteria and virus that we cannot afford to lose. To win the battle against infectious diseases, he has planned to focus Taiwan CDC’s future work on the following four directions: expertise cultivation, pragmatic actions, concerted efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases, and securing public trust. Dr. Chou looks forward to leading Taiwan CDC to work relentlessly around the clock in order to protect Taiwan from threats posed by infectious diseases, both at home and abroad.