TAIPEI: Taiwan's top health official said yesterday there's no likelihood of the government's revising the ongoing immunization program against H1N1 flu, as the campaign is doing much more good than harm.

Department of Health (DOH) chief Yaung Chih-liang said that so far there has been only one fatality that could possibly be linked to the vaccine, although the cause of the death is yet to be determined, and that relatively few people have developed side effects.

"The number of deaths from influenza H1N1 would have been comparatively much higher had Taiwan not launched the H1N1 immunization campaign," Yaung told the press after a hearing at the Legislative Yuan on regulations governing Taiwan's medical sector.

"So far Taiwan has had 33 H1N1 fatalities, a much better figure than most other countries in the world," he said.

In addition, he said, the number of new H1N1 cases has dropped significantly since the vaccination campaign was launched November 1.

According to DOH statistics, since the start of the immunization program, a total of 424 of the 4.81 million people who have been vaccinated have complained of serious symptoms, including high fever.

Meanwhile, Yaung said the DOH will organize a special task force, comprising experts from Taiwan's medical and legal fields, to address controversies related to side effects of the H1N1 inoculation.

However, Yaung said, he does not yet have any concrete ideas on how such a task force should function.

Meanwhile, he advised that people who are not medical professionals refrain from making statements or accusations on matters related to H1N1 vaccination complaints.

"It is better to let the specialists talk. Otherwise the DOH will be overrun by the media before the facts could be determined," he urged.

In response to reports that the family of a seven-year-old boy who died allegedly from the H1N1 vaccine has refused to have an autopsy performed on the body, Yaung said that the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office has launched an investigation into the case and that the DOH will respect the prosecutors' findings and their decisions.

Yaung also said the DOH will consider making survey forms available to people who have received the H1N1 flu vaccine, as a means of tracking side effects or any other problems.

He told the Legislative Yuan that the idea is for the DOH to ask people who have received the H1N1 vaccine to enter information on the survey forms that will give health authorities a better grasp of the problems and complaints related to the immunization program.

Yaung made the suggestion in response to opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislator Huang Sue-ying's criticism of DOH officials' "bad attitude" of immediately asserting that reactive symptoms, side effects, and even deaths "had nothing to do with the H1N1 vaccination."

In related news, Steve Kuo, director-general of the DOH Centers for Disease Control, suggested Thursday that pregnant women consult their obstetricians before getting the H1N1 vaccine.

Although the World Health Organization as well as the health authorities of Taiwan and the United States have advised that vaccination is safe at any stage of pregnancy, Kuo said it would be better for the pregnant women to consult a doctor before getting immunized.

He made the statement after five problem cases involving pregnant women were reported. Two of the women had stillbirths, two had miscarriages, and the fifth was distressed to learn, after she had received the H1N1 vaccine, that she was pregnant.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/25/2009 page2)