President Ma Ying-jeou met with 2008 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi at the Presidential Office. The president extended a cordial welcome to Professor Barré-Sinoussi on behalf of the government and people of the ROC.
President Ma stated that Professor Barré-Sinoussi's research on AIDS prevention has benefited all of humanity, enabling many people to avoid early death due to AIDS. The contributions she has made in AIDS research have been applauded the world over, he said, subsequently enabling her to be singled out for the Nobel Prize.
President Ma noted that the ROC left the World Health Organization 38 years ago and it was not until last year that the nation was once again able to participate in the World Health Assembly. Taiwan's efforts to prevent a widespread outbreak of the H1N1 strain of influenza were successful, he said, pointing out that 75% of people aged under 18 were vaccinated, which was the world's highest for that age group. Meanwhile, the death rate from H1N1 here was only one-third that of OECD member nations, demonstrating the effectiveness of measures adopted by the government.
The president furthermore stated that Taiwan's first reported case of AIDS was in 1984 and the total number of reported cases has now topped 19,000. In response, the Cabinet-level Department of Health in 2005 initiated the Harm Reduction Program to prevent the spread of the virus, including a needle syringe program to provide clean needles to intravenous drug users. These measures have been quite effective, he said, noting that the number of new cases of HIV positive individuals fell for the first time in 2006. While the overall number of HIV positive people here is not high when compared with many other nations, the number of people infected with the virus continues to rise, and is still a serious long-term problem.
President Ma specially thanked the medical, academic, and preventive medicine communities for their efforts, stressing that the government will not let down its guard in terms of prevention work. He said he hopes to take advantage of this opportunity to ask Professor Barré-Sinoussi for advice on how to prevent AIDS even more effectively in Taiwan.
Professor Barré-Sinoussi was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by Minister without Portfolio Ovid J. L. Tzeng and Department of Health Deputy Minister Dr. Shan-Chwen Chang to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Chung Chien.