ABSTRACT
In 1990, the seroprevalence of antibody against hepatitis C virus (anti- HCV) in Taiwan was first documented to be 0.95% in volunteer blood donors, 90% in hemophiliacs, and 81% in parenteral drug abusers. The risk factors for HCV infection in Taiwan include iatrogenic transmission (medical injection, hemodialysis, acupuncture, and blood transfusion), tattooing, and sexual transmission. The long-term risk of hepatic and non-hepatic diseases has been well-documented by REVEL-HCV study. A national program of antiviral therapy for chronic viral hepatitis was launched in Taiwan in 2003. Mortality rates of end-stage liver diseases decreased continuously from 2000-2003 to 2008-2011 in all age and gender groups. When the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis in 2016, National program to eliminate hepatitis C was very carefully evaluated. It became a consensus to reach the WHO's 2030 goals in 2025. Taiwan Hepatitis C Policy Guideline 2018-2025 was approved and published at the beginning of 2019. There are triple focuses of hepatitis C elimination in Taiwan including (1) therapy spearheads prevention, (2) screening supports therapy, and (3) prevention secures outcome. A total of US$1.7 billion will be allocated from 2017 to 2025 for the elimination of HCV. The coverage of HCV screening and treatment has been increasing significantly since 2017. The HCV screening coverage was almost 100% for dialytic patients, 96% for HIV-infected patients, 65% for patients under opioid substitution treatment, 63% for patients in the pre-end-stage renal disease care program, 57% for patients in the early chronic kidney disease care program, 52% for patients in diabetes care program, 39% for prisoners, and 38% for adults aged 45-79 years old in the general population by April 30, 2020. The budget to cover the cost of DAA increased from US$101 million in 2017 to US$219 million in 2019. The number of chronic hepatitis C patients receiving DAA therapy increased from 9,538 in 2017, 19,549 in 2018, to 45,806 in 2019. However, the number of DAA-treated CHC patients reduced to 36,159 in 2020 and 20,559 in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cure rate based on SVR12 was 96.8% in 2017, 97.4% in 2018, over 98.6% after 2019. It is expected that Taiwan will achieve WHO's HCV elimination goal by 2025.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically lowered the foodservice industry's income overnight. Conversely, the practical measure of remaining at home to deal with the pandemic's impact has boosted the online food delivery business. In this study, a consumer perspective was adopted and an adapted version of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) was used alongside multi-attribute decision-making methods (DEMATEL, DANP and modified VIKOR) to construct a model for evaluating and selecting a food delivery platform (FDP). The results of the INRM (influential network relation map) revealed that the first dimension to be improved upon and adjusted should be security, followed by effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and habit. The DANP influential weights suggested that habits were the most important dimension, followed by hedonic motivation, while performance expectancy was the least important. According to the results of the gap analysis, the first dimension that required improvement was performance expectancy, followed by effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, security, social influence, habits and hedonic motivation. It is expected that the findings of this study can serve as a reference for consumers selecting FDPs to better satisfy their dining needs. The novel model is discussed in terms of theoretical, practical and managerial implications. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Given the negative impacts of fisheries subsidies on trade, the environment and sustainable development, there have been concerns for eliminating . fisheries subsidies via international instruments following the development of international. fisheries law, and international trade law, in particular, the World Trade Organization (hereinafter "WTO") law. As there is no single international instrument at the global level to effectively control fisheries subsidies, via a group of WTO Members' advocates this issue was finally drawn to the WTO's Doha Round Negotiations initiated in 2001 and contained in the mandates of the Doha Ministerial Declaration. In 2007, the WTO's Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR) proposed the Draft Consolidated Chair Texts of the AD and SCM Agreement (hereinafter "2007 Proposed Draft") which represents a substantial step of these negotiations. However, with the failure of the Doha Round Negotiations, the 2007 Proposed Draft has been put in mothballs. Fortunately, international concerns were later stimulated at both the regional and global levels, namely the 2015 Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (hereinafter "TPP") which was then replaced by the 2018 Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (hereinafter "CPTPP") as well as the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (hereinafter "SDGs"). Both concepts developed within the TPP/CPTPP and SDGs to a great extent reflect those of the WTO's 2007 Proposed Draft. Finally, as the response to the SDGs and as the decision of the 2017 WTO Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference, the negotiations resumed in 2020 aiming to conclude the negotiations in the next Ministerial Conference. Although the negotiations have been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, based on efforts that have been made, the Chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations released a revised draft (hereinafter "2021 Revised Draft") in November 2021. Given that the fisheries resources in the Asia-Pacific region are depleting, as well as that the majority of States involving in marine capture fisheries and fisheries subsidies are located in this region, this paper with a focus on this region examines the potential instruments via a normative and comparative analysis of the WTO's 2007 Proposed Draft and 2021 Revised Draft, as well as the CPTPP Environment Chapter. Found are that the 2021 Revised Draft seems to have made some compromises and thus there may be fewer obstacles in the negotiations. Yet, the wrestling between the United States and China may still impact the outcome of negotiations. In that case, further attention can be paid to the CPTPP which provides robust fisheries subsidies and fisheries management regulations. Both to accelerate the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations at the global level as well as to enhance the CPTPP expansion and to improve its enforcement at the regional level would be needed for the robust fisheries management and conservation in the Asia-Pacific region.
ABSTRACT
Although testing is widely regarded as critical to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, what measure and level of testing best reflects successful infection control remains unresolved. Our aim was to compare the sensitivity of two testing metrics - population testing number and testing coverage - to population mortality outcomes and identify a benchmark for testing adequacy. We aggregated publicly available data through 12 April on testing and outcomes related to COVID-19 across 36 OECD (Organization for Economic Development) countries and Taiwan. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between the aforementioned metrics and following outcome measures: deaths per 1 million people, case fatality rate and case proportion of critical illness. Fractional polynomials were used to generate scatter plots to model the relationship between the testing metrics and outcomes. We found that testing coverage, but not population testing number, was highly correlated with population mortality (rs = -0.79, P = 5.975 × 10-9vs. rs = -0.3, P = 0.05) and case fatality rate (rs = -0.67, P = 9.067 × 10-6vs. rs = -0.21, P = 0.20). A testing coverage threshold of 15-45 signified adequate testing: below 15, testing coverage was associated with exponentially increasing population mortality; above 45, increased testing did not yield significant incremental mortality benefit. Taken together, testing coverage was better than population testing number in explaining country performance and can serve as an early and sensitive indicator of testing adequacy and disease burden.