An H7N9 influenza vaccine could be on the market by July at the earliest if Taiwan were to receive the vaccine strain by the end of May, Adimmune Corporation Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said yesterday.

Taiwan could impose a ban on slaughtering live poultry at traditional markets earlier than planned because of the H7N9 bird flu scare, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.

A new case of bird flu in China's capital, a 4-year-old boy who displayed no symptoms, is adding to the unknowns about the latest outbreak that has caused 61 confirmed cases and 14 deaths.

Researchers in the United States on Sunday said they had bio-engineered a kidney and transplanted it into rats, marking a step forward in a quest to help patients suffering from kidney failure.

Amid the H7N9 influenza outbreak in mainland China, the Bureau of National Health Insurance yesterday said there are currently 131 hospitals in Taiwan equipped with isolation wards.

Specimens from a 4-year-old Chinese tourist who developed a fever in the eastern county of Hualien were delivered for testing for H7N9 avian influenza yesterday, according to health officials, but lab results came back negative.

Dr. Hilary Koprowski, the Polish-born researcher who developed the first successful oral vaccination for polio, died this week at his Philadelphia home. He was 96.

A desperate Indian father whose young child suffers from a condition that caused her head to swell up to an enormous size said Saturday he is praying for a “miracle” to save her life.

Just how do you attack that unsightly bulge around your waist?

Coffee drinkers, beware. Seventy-five percent of local chains use lids that are potentially toxic, according to a survey released Saturday by Taipei City councilors.