The Department of Health (DOH) is stepping up its plan to make automated external defibrillators (AED) available in public places nationwide, hoping to install 44 of the devices per every 100,000 people by 2015.
Promoting the plan at a news conference at Taipei Railway Station yesterday, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said the automated defibrillators were easy to operate and could help save lives. Equipping domestic ambulances with AEDs has already improved survival rates for people who suffer sudden heart attacks in Taiwan to 5 percent from less than 1 percent, he said.
Based on the experience of the US, Japan and Europe, the survival rate could be further improved to more than 30 percent if AEDs are more widely installed in public places, he said. |
