April 7 was World Health Day, and this year specialists from the 192 member states of the World Health Organization convened in Zambia to discuss how to combat the acute shortage of health workers globally and how to work together as a global community to fight disease and improve health. Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, is excluded from the WHO and therefore has no channel through which to benefit directly from this meeting, or even from the existing global health network.

Excluded from the WHO, as well as many other international health organizations, such as the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, the International Health Regulations 2005 mechanism, Taiwan is still struggling to gain access to the international global disease prevention and control network. But because of China’s intervention, the likelihood of this happening still seems slim.

Americans might wonder why they should be personally concerned with the exclusion of one distant country from the WHO. There are two reasons. The first is a matter of principle: The UN and its subsidiaries, such as the WHO, operate under a universal principle. They were founded under the belief that all of humanity has certain inalienable rights, including the right to health care and representation in international bodies. The exclusion of Taiwan out of political considerations is a gross violation of this policy.

The second reason affects Americans in a much more concrete way. In order for a global network to be effective, it must be universal. Contagious disease knows no borders, and containing it requires truly global monitoring and prevention efforts. If, for example, avian flu develops in Thailand and spreads to Taiwan, a transportation and trade hub, it could rapidly travel around the world. For the safety of all as well as itself, Taiwan needs access to all available resources to fight contagious disease. This means it needs access to WHO activities.

When severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in China in 2003, Taiwan, separated from Mainland China by just a narrow strait, was directly affected. But because of its exclusion from the WHO, Taiwan was not only a step behind learning about the course the disease was taking, it also had no direct means of immediately getting aid from the WHO. Eighty-three people died of SARS in Taiwan that year, and Taiwan suffered economic losses of $1.8 billion from the effects of the disease.

Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO also means that the international community cannot freely partake of Taiwan’s medical achievements and epidemic-fighting experience, despite that fact that Taiwan has consistently been very willing to contribute everything it can to global health efforts.

The reason for Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO is that the People’s Republic of China government claims it already covers the health needs of Taiwan’s people in the WHO under the “One China” policy. In fact, it does not have the authority to do so, nor does Taiwan benefit directly from China’s WHO membership.

It’s impossible to say when another potentially catastrophic virus such as SARS or avian flu will knock on our doors. But we know that it will come eventually, and the world can’t afford a loophole in disease prevention networks. Nor can Taiwan afford another disaster such as SARS.

Taiwan is not seeking to politicize the issue of public health. It seeks an apolitical solution to a pressing problem, and it has found one: Allow Taiwan participation as a “health entity,” rather than as a country. With other irregular observers such as the Holy See, Palestine, and the Order of Malta enjoying WHO’s observer status, the WHO has no justification for continuing to refuse to allow Taiwan to participate in its activities.

Mr. Lee is acting director of the press division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.