May 5, 2009

Taiwan will not be banning imports of pork from abroad at present as pigs are not believed to have been responsible for the global outbreak of the influenza A (H1NI) virus, previously known as swine flu, Taiwan's Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yeh Ching-chuan said Monday (May 4).

Yeh quoted the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier reports that consumers cannot catch the virus by eating well-cooked pork and pork products.

Yeh said the virus has genetically mutated as it had been transmitted from a farmer in Canada to the pigs he raises. However, there is no proof that the H1N1 virus has been transmitted from infected pigs to humans or caused any pig-to-pig infection, he added.

Yeh said Taiwan has made inquiries over the past few days to the US Centres for Disease Control, the UK Department of Health and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare about the possibility of providing Taiwan with samples of the H1N1 virus strain for vaccine development.

The UK Department of Health will be providing the samples to Taiwan before May 20.

Once the H1N1 virus strain is obtained and inactivated, Taiwan's National Health Research Institute will be able to develop a vaccine within three months for emergency use, according to Yeh.

Yeh added that Taiwan will also participate in WHO's global H1N1 vaccine production plan.

According to the latest WHO report as of May 4, 21 countries had officially reported 1,085 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.

Mexico had reported 590 laboratory-confirmed human cases of infection, including 25 deaths, while the US had reported 286 laboratory-confirmed human cases, including one death.