This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 004951 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP /TC AND OES/IHA 
HHS PLEASE PASS TO ERIKA ELVANDER 
GENEVA PLEASE PASS HEALTH ATTACHE DAVID HOHMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMED AMGT CASC ECON SENV SOCI TBIO TW ESTH
SUBJECT:  TAIWAN'S BIO-TERRORISM DEFENSE 
 
¶1.  Summary. Taiwan's Department of Health (DOH) held a 
three-day International Conference on Bio-terrorism Defense 
in Taipei December 6 -8, with international experts on bio- 
terrorism and presentations on the economics, law, medicine, 
public health, emergency management, epidemiology and other 
fields.  On December 8, the Taipei city government conducted 
a bio-terrorism attack and response exercise.  End Summary. 
 
Taipei Int'l Conference on Bio-terrorism Defense 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2.  AIT/T Science Officer and Regional Medical Officer 
attended the 2005 Taipei International Conference on Bio- 
terrorism Defense, held December 6 - 8, 2005 at the Grand 
Hotel in Taipei.  DOH and the Ministry of National Defense 
(MND) jointly organized the conference.  The conference 
presented an opportunity for exchanges on how to prepare for 
bio-terrorism.  Speakers included experts from the U.S., 
Japan, Poland, Singapore, Indonesia, France and other 
countries.  The conference was divided into three sessions: 
¶1. Governmental Preparedness for Bio-terrorism; 2. Response 
to Bio-terrorism Attack; and 3. Taiwan's Response Team 
reacting to a mock bio-terror attack in a subway (metro) 
station. 
 
How to deal with Bio-terrorism 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3. Taiwan Center for Disease Control (CDC) Director General 
Steve Kuo said Taiwan is relatively new to bio-terrorism 
defense and needs to coordinate with the global healthcare 
community.  Kuo stated that despite non-official status in 
WHO, Taiwan participated on the basis of the recently 
revised International Health Regulations (IHR) with 
"universal application."  He said DOH is in the process of 
drafting plans for launching Taiwan's "Bio-terrorism 
Preparedness Training Center," to be located in Taoyuan, 
jointly with the National Defense Military Medical Bureau. 
While bio-terrorism used to be considered a national 
security issue entirely within the purview of the military, 
Kuo said the DOH is now also actively involved.  Kuo said 
anthrax and smallpox are the most likely bio-terrorist 
threats to Taiwan. 
 
¶4. CDC Deputy DG Shih Wen-yi spoke on Taiwan's 
countermeasures to biological attack.  Shih said that Taiwan 
has made a slow start in the area of bio-terrorism defense. 
Shih described command and control structures, planning and 
drills held, and laboratory capacity for identification of 
biologic agents.  In outlining Taiwan's national goals, Shih 
said that priorities include completing a bio-terrorism 
emergency response system, enacting anti-bio-terrorism 
regulations and establishing a policy, recruiting personnel 
to staff anti-bio-terrorism organizations and selecting and 
procuring inspection and protection equipment.  In 1993, the 
Executive Yuan completed a draft plan to deal with 
bioterrorism. Since that time the plan has undergone 
multiple revisions including the July 2004 establishment of 
the "Council of Bio-terrorism and Unknown Communicable 
Disease Prevention and Control."  At present, Taiwan's 
national anti-terrorism system is modeled on a "3-3-1" 
system.  The first "3" refers to the different stages of 
crisis management: preventing it, dealing with it and 
recovering from it.  The second "3" refers to the different 
levels of risk associated with an incident: low, medium or 
high.  While the "1" refers to an emergency response system. 
 
Disaster Response: Learning From Past Experience 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5.  Session II of the conference focused on responses to a 
bio-terrorism attack.  DOH Bureau of Medical Affairs 
Director-General Hsueh Jui-yuan reviewed disasters in Taiwan 
over last 100 years.  Health-related disasters have claimed 
3600 lives in SIX incidents.  Earthquakes have claimed 7900 
lives in 14 episodes and other disasters have claimed a 
total of 17000 lives over the past 100 years.  Taiwan's 
response system focuses on the role of the local and 
national fire brigades.  County authorities are the base 
level, activating the response system and alerting the 
national brigades.  The National Security System and 
Executive System would work in parallel in the event of a 
crisis.  Taiwan's vaccination, medicine stockpiles, law 
enforcement and training programs for bio-terrorism were 
also addressed in this session. 
 
¶6.  The experts stressed that surveillance, quarantine, 
laboratory testing, and immunization are important bio- 
medical defense measures against bio-terrorism.  TCDC 
pointed out that surveillance systems in Taiwan are active, 
and over 500 medical staff report to the government each 
week on medical developments.  Reviewing lessons learned 
from the SARS experience, Taiwan health experts highlighted 
the importance of protecting medical staff in the event of 
an outbreak. 
 
Drills: need for better press management 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  The conference ended with a demonstration drill of a bio- 
terror attack.  The scenario involved theft of lab samples 
of Avian Influenza from a hospital lab, politically 
motivated threats against the authorities, and a deliberate 
release of the Avian Influenza virus in a local subway 
(Metro) station.  This event was witnessed by bystanders who 
alerted the authorities, leading to a chain of events 
culminating in closure of the MRT station.  Simultaneously, 
the emergency response system was activated with a 
combination of forensic, public health, and medical teams. 
The response teams, wearing protective equipment, 
decontaminated victims in mobile units and moved them to 
medical facilities.  All went smoothly in the mock event, 
except that the press was not properly managed and barged in 
at every opportunity to take photos, causing delays. 
 
 
Can they respond to massive casualties? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. After the drill, American experts and TCDC personnel 
discussed the merits of the exercise. Dr. Allswede, head of 
the American delegation, commented that the conference was a 
good investment of time by the Taiwan authorities and that 
good progress had been made over the past year. 
 
¶9. The panel of experts raised many questions about the 
equipment, organization and capabilities of the response 
teams. For example, the response team at the scene of the 
alleged attack, while well equipped with sensors for bio- 
chem agents, did not carry radioactive detectors. If the 
attack had involved radioactive agents, the response team 
would have been unable to detect those agents. Further, 
there was no provision for dealing with an explosive device. 
 
¶10. The experts also questioned the police screening of 
people at the attack site. The quick apprehension of the 
alleged suspect was lauded but doubts were raised as to why 
the public at the site of the attack (subway station) were 
not screened for the possibility of additional attackers. 
 
¶11. In the scenario a dozen or so subway riders were put 
through an isolation tent and treated. However, in the event 
of massive casualties, it was not clear that the authorities 
have the ability to treat hundreds of patients and to test 
them for exposure to pathogens. There were also doubts about 
the one-hour response time capability claimed by the TCDC 
response team considering traffic, accessibility and 
interagency coordination issues. 
 
¶12. The panel concluded this was a good exercise, but work 
needs to be done to foster stronger interagency coordination 
among agencies responding to a bio-chem attack.  Currently, 
the Atomic Energy Commission is responsible for radioactive 
incidents, the Environmental Protection Agency for chemical 
attacks and the Center for Disease Control for bio-attacks. 
Ensuring that these different agencies cooperate in the 
event of a bio-chem attack is an issue that the next 
conference on bio-terrorism will need to address. 
PAAL