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USCDC had set up a mobile ted or approved by the Food sion were staying at a 'five- not escalate into a full-blowti
laboratoiy. The tbree biolo- and Drug Administration. star hotel', and it probably was epideinic spreading across
gists in tbe inission became Yang Jyh-yuan and two other -at least in the eyes of local the entire continent.
iiivolved in Jab work as soon colleagues volunteered to be people. However, once you Althougli no defufftive cire
as they airived. injected with the vaccine, i'is- stepped iiito the room, you for the fever has been found,
king their lives as hiunan gui- would find bugs, beetles, flies tlie experimental vaccine
"By tlie time we got to nea-pigs. Ho pointed out that and mosquitoes crawling on MP-12 showed limited suc-
Gai'issa, rougmy 400 or 500 working in a laboratory like the floor or fly'ng around." cess in its preliininaiy trials.
kilometres away from Nairobi, the one in Nairobi posed addi- Many people in the area lac-
the disease was actiially at its tional tl'u'eats to the health of ked televisions or access to Lin Ding, the deputy direc-
liighest point," said Ho. "It the tbi:ee biologists, becarise newspapers, so, according to tor-general of the CDC in
was also when the intematio- tliey could be exposed to the CNA report, local health Taiwan, conchided that the
nal operation needed us the other vii"iises. authorities took over the medical mission to Kenya
most." The mission treated public address systems of was significant. He pointed
patients in Garissa Provincial Huang Ji-jia, who specialized mosques. From the mosques, out tliat it was the first time
Hospital and worked with in parasites, ventured out into loudspeakers broadcasted that Taiwan has ever sent a
local doctors, as well as spe- the swamps to cai'iy out field- infonriation about the disease. medical inission to work with

cialists from France, the work. Back iii Gai'issa, lie Announcements provided the WHO and other intemational
United States and Canada. shared his knowledge of vec- latest news, explained organizations.
WHO and North-Eastem tor control-in other words, methods to improve personal
Provincial Medical Office - how to extenninate mosqui- hygiene and encouraged The Kenyan goveinment
the maiit local agency-co- toes. Huang trained local infected people to check into praised Taiwan's prompt
ordinated ineetings of all tlie medical workers in basic pro- hospitals. response, according to a 2007
intemational health organiza- tection techniques against the TaiwanIHA report. Tl'ie way
tions iiwolved in the effoit. It insects, such as using pestici- Local-level co-operation was in whicli the USCDC welco-
was an opportunity for des. critical to the success of the med TaiwanIHA's contribu-

Taiwan's doctors to collabora- missioi'i, and Ho spoke lffghly tions in the mobile Jab was
te with their cointeipaits from For most of the teairi mem- of the Noitl'i-Eastem also a sigiffificant step toward
around the world. bers, living in Gai'issa was a Provincial Public Health Taiwan becoming more of a
challenge. Jenkins Liu, a cor- Office: "Without their lielp, paitner in global health,
The three biologists worked in respondent from Taiwan's nothing could have been wliicli grows ever more
the mobile lab hying to find a Central News Agency statio- done," he said. important in an age where
crire for RX7F. According to a ned in Johannesburg, wrote epideinics laiow no borders
2007 TaiwanIHA repoit, a about tlie operation on 27 Thanks to the combined and can strike anywhere.
new vaccine called MP-12 had Januaiy: "The sanitaiy condi- efforts of intemational health
been developed by the U.S. tions in the city were appal- agencies, the fever was contai- Write to Alexarider Chou at
militaiy, but had not been tes- ling. The members of the inis- ned to Eastem Africa and did alexcJiou@mail.gio.govdw

2 2007 Diva 19

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