Posted on 05/18/2003 3:26:08 PM PDT by Lessismore
TAIPEI - Taiwan's Sars woes continued yesterday as the island reported a second straight day of record increases with 36 new cases.
The authorities also had to apologise to the Japanese people after a Taiwanese doctor who visited five of their cities recently was confirmed as having the virus.
The new infections pushed the number of cases in Taiwan to 344. Another five deaths were reported, taking the island's death toll to 40.
The government, already under fire over its handling of the epidemic, found itself in another embarrassing situation yesterday after it was confirmed that a Taiwanese doctor who visited Japan earlier this month was infected with Sars.
The revelation sparked fears of cross-border transmission and prompted criticism from Japanese Health Minister Sakaguchi Chikara.
He accused the doctor of being unethical for spreading the disease to Japan, which has no confirmed Sars cases.
The Taiwanese government apologised to Japan in a bid to contain political fallout which might damage ties and cost Tokyo's support for the island's bid to join the World Health Organisation (WHO).
'Foreign Minister Eugene Chien has asked the representative to Japan, Lo Fu-chuan, to voice Taiwan's sincere apologies to the Japanese people for causing them uneasiness and inconvenience,' the Foreign Ministry said.
Japan, which does not maintain official ties with Taiwan, has voiced support for the island's bid to join the WHO as an observer and has offered to send medical experts to the island to help contain Sars.
Addressing fears that Japan may reverse its decision following the incident, Foreign Ministry spokesman Richard Shih said: 'The two issues are two separate things. The Japanese authorities realise this.'
The 26-year-old doctor from Taipei's Mackay Memorial Hospital, one of seven hospitals hit by Sars, was confirmed as having Sars on Saturday.
The doctor, identified only by his surname, Chou, was among a 27-member Taiwanese tour which visited Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Tokushima and Kagawa between May 8 and 13.
Dr Chou had a fever two days after arriving in Japan but it went away after he took some medicine.
It was only after he returned to Taiwan that he developed Sars symptoms and was hospitalised.
The incident triggered fears of Sars in western Japan, although no cases of infection have been reported so far.
The Japanese media has lashed out at Taiwan for allowing the doctor to visit Japan, although Mackay Hospital insisted that Dr Chou was not aware of his infection.
Hospital vice-president Kuo Hsu-ta said Dr Chou had not been involved in treating Sars patients.
He could have been infected somehow when a man who was later confirmed to have the virus was treated at a ward where the doctor was on duty.
The incident has prompted Health Minister Chen Chien-jen to urge medical staff to postpone plans to travel abroad, adding the government will step up health checks at airports.
Meanwhile, the disease claimed the life of a fourth nurse yesterday. Cheng Hsueh-hui, 49, was deputy chief of the nursing department in Taipei's Municipal Hoping Hospital.
Two Taiwanese doctors have also died of Sars.
Of the 344 Sars cases on the island, about one third involve medical staff and hospital workers.
Yesterday, Kuantu Hospital shut down its emergency services and said it would suspend its out-patient service today after four of its medical workers and the husband of one of its staff members contracted the Sars virus.
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