DOH working to allay public concerns over H1N1 vaccine
The Department of Health (DOH) is taking steps to allay public misgivings over the H1N1 flu vaccine, by training teachers to address people’s fears in face-to-face meetings at local community colleges and drug stores, DOH Minister Yaung Chih-liang said Tuesday.
Yaung said the public’s concerns over the vaccine are linked to extensive media reports about side effects such as nausea, vomiting and dizziness. The H1N1 immunization rate in Taiwan remains below 30 percent, he noted.
Yaung made the comments on the sidelines of a cross-Taiwan Strait seminar on H1N1 prevention, which was jointly sponsored by the Taipei-based Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry and China’s Chinese Medicine Association.
Chinese Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu is attending the seminar in his capacity as an advisor to the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
Huang said China also has the same problem of a low H1N1 vaccination rate, which he attributed to the fact that the virus is not as virulent as SARS and its fatality rate is relatively low.
However, Huang urged, people should get the vaccine for protection of their health and should not reject it because of side effects.
“The H1N1 vaccines produced in Taiwan, China and other countries are all safe and effective, ” he said, adding that the immunization rate in China is expected to reach 10 percent in March.
There have been 38 reported cases of H1N1 deaths in Taiwan to date.
Huang arrived in Taipei Monday, at the head of a delegation of experts, to take part in the seminar, which is focused on monitoring the spread of the H1N1 flu, its clinical diagnosis and treatment, and the storage of anti-viral drugs.
It is Huang’s third visit to Taiwan. He called for extensive cross-strait cooperation in the areas of food safety, disease reporting and the development of biotechnology, and expressed the hope there would no political barriers to medical collaboration between Taiwan and China.
According to Huang, he has given Yaung a letter urging two-way efforts to create maximum benefits for the people on both sides.
Huang is a famous liver transplant expert in China. In 2002, he worked alongside Chen Chao-lung, superintendent of Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, in a liver transplant operation involving a donor mother to her daughter, who had Wilson’s disease.
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