ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Migros is recalling its Prosciutto cotto Gran Riserva, sold in several cantons including Basel, Vaud and Zurich, after the Zurich cantonal lab found evidence of Listeria.
The bacteria can be particularly harmful to pregnant women and anyone with immune system problems. Headaches, fever and nausea experienced after eating the ham should be reported promptly to a doctor.
Consumers should not eat the product and will be reimbursed when they return it to any Migros store.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – US pharmaceutical company Pfizer won the Swiss Federal Tribunal’s backing Thursday 4 August for health insurers to cover the cost of Champix, a drug used by some smokers to ease their tobacco addiction. The court agreed that in some cases the addiction is an illness and the cost of the drug should be reimbursed.
Football and skiing cause greatest number of sports injuries, Swiss safety statistics show
Source: BPU 2011 (click on image to view larger)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The greatest number of injuries to children around the home in Switzerland are due to falling from heights, while by age 26 falling on stairs becomes more of a problem.
By age 45 we become wiser about avoiding falls in general, until age 65 when we suddenly fall more often at level ground and once again from heights. But we remain far more careful about stairs in our old age.
The details of how and when we are likely to injure ourselves in accidents are part of the lastest Swiss safety statistics, published Wednesday 3 August by BPU, the Swiss Safety Council.
Accidents cost the country CHF55 million in 2008
The new figures, culled from 2008 statistics, underscore the often-ignored fact that accidents are a major and costly public health problem. Accidents caused more than 61,000 deaths in 2008, the most recent year for statistics and the one covered by the report.
Disease, by comparison, caused some 57,000 deaths.
The figures hold true for every age group: accidents at all ages take more lives than disease.
The total economic burden of all accidents in 2008 was CHF54.8 million, with home and leisure accidents accounting for more than half, CHF30 million. Road accidents cost more than the sports or home/leisure accidents when tangible costs alone are considered, but the longer-term cost of home and leisure accidents is more than double the figure for either road or sports accidents.
The statistics also show that for the three categories of road, sports and home/leisure accidents, the greatest number of people who are disabled or severely injured have had accidents at home, some 29,000. The figures for people disabled or severely injured by road accidents and sports are about the same: some 12,000 people in 2008 for each group.
The highest number of deaths, 1,538, was due to home accidents, followed by road accidents, 329, and sports accidents, 129.
Road accidents, however, carry the greatest risk of disability, severe injury or death, based on the rates in 2008. BPU registered 91,000 road accidents, 310,000 sports accidents and 600,000 home and leisure accidents.
Soccer has the highest per-hour-of-sport incidence of injuries
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Red Cross’s blood donor programme, Transfusion CRS Suisse, launched an emergency public appeal Monday 18 July for more donors during the next four weeks.
Supplies are dangerously low, the group says, and hospitals may be required to postpone surgeries if adequate supplies are not available.
Summer is a low donor period, but the last time supplies fell this low was during the World Cup in 2010, accompanied by a hot spell, which cut the number of donors.
This year the problem is linked to unexpectedly high needs from a number of hospitals.
Transfusion CRS Suisse, an independent group with a federal mandate to maintain hospital and emergency supplies coverage, plans to distribute 1,000 posters in train stations and on trains in the next four weeks, as part of the appeal.
Details about the requirements and how to give blood are available on the group’s web site, www.transfusion.ch and by telephone from a free number, in French: 0800 000 757.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Department of the Interior Thursday moved to ban, effective immediately, several Egyptian agricultural products to protect consumers from the possibility of E. Coli (EHEC) contamination. The ban is effective until 31 October and covers a number of types of sprouts, beans and seeds sold to consumers as well as sprouts and seeds for planting and for animals foods.
The move follows the 6 July announcement by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that the German and French E. Coli outbreaks had been traced imported Egyptian fenugreek seeds. Switzerland issued an alert against consuming fenagreek, as a precaution, 6 July, but EFSA informed the Swiss after that grains were found in animal foods that Switzerland imports.
Fenugreek is an ages-old remedy to increase the flow of breast milk when nursing.
Bern says that epidemiological tests have now shown the E. Coli appeared due to handling problems during production, but the precise source of the problem is still being sought by European health authorities. A tiny amount of a product carrying the bacteria can cause severe health problems.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Several players met in Bern at the end of last week to hammer out details of how the country can provide citizens with an electronic or “cyber health” system that will include smart health care cards. The goal is to create a nationwide electronic system that provides hospitals and doctors with medical information but that protects the patients’ privacy. Insurance industry, medical profession and high tech company representatives as well as Swiss Post, which has been trialling a card, agreed on a number of steps.
There were strong reservations about including medical data on the card itself, but an experts review of existing cards that was mandated by Bern, such as the Swiss Post and pharmasuisse ones, concluded that all existing cards work very well. Technical differences came to light, however, and the group agreed that card manufacturers will need to create “middleware”, an interface that functions independently of the cards or software, to provide uniformity and allow them to be used more widely.
The group agreed that setting up a pilot project to trial cards in some cantons is a top priority, but there was also widespread agreement that a legal basis for handling data must be created. The Federal Health Office will be responsible for overseeing the development of the legal system needed to ensure that the next generation of cards has the necessary compatibility.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland will not make organized assisted suicide a federal crime: the Federal Council Wednesday 29 June instead chose to boost efforts to discourage suicide and to improve palliative care options.
The cabinet noted that “the government is still intent on fostering suicide prevention and palliative care in order to reduce the number of suicides. The entire package of measures should contribute to strengthening the right of self-determination.”
Switzerland permits assisted suicide but only under certain circumstances, and the government, after consulting cantons and interested parties on the impact of making it illegal, concluded that banning it would have a number of drawbacks.
Bern was quick to underscore, however, that “to render assisted suicide admissible, the current legal provisions already require the person seeking suicide to have the mental capacity to consent and to be sufficiently well informed.
Moreover, the term ‘selfish motives’ referred to in the above-mentioned legislation already renders criminal prosecution possible in cases of assisted suicide abuse.”
The council argues that current legal tools are “flexible and practice-oriented” and constitute “a sensible balance between the State’s responsibility to protect the individual and to respect personal freedom.” Legislating a ban could in fact “legitimize” organized assisted suicide businesses, thus encouraging people to use their services. Clinics are currently tolerated as long as employees stay within the limits of the law.
The medical profession in Switzerland was one of the groups consulted.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The first-ever international conference that brings together experts from five continents to a meeting on infection control and resistance to antibiotics meets in Geneva 29 June – 4 July. The meeting is a key session for experts in the wake of recent major infections with new elements, the e. Coli breakout in Germany and an NDM1 outbreak in India.
The meeting hosts 1,300 participants from 80 countries, with 600 abstracts presented.
The conference has two main goals, say the organizers: to carry the principles of infectious disease prevention beyond hospitals and ensure they are observed more generally in all areas of patient care, and to mobilize a far greater number of people in the fight against infections that are resistant to antibiotics. Patients, professionals and authorities all need to be more aware of the problem of resistance, according to World Health Organization experts.
Highlights will include a presentation on “Escherichia coli made in Germany” and the history of the NDM-1 bacteria in India, by authors and the editor of Britain’s Lancet medical journal and Friday as a day to celebrate the 10 commandments of hand hygiene in commemoration of the 150 years since Ignác Philipp Semmelweis published his thesis suggesting that students dissecting cadavers were carrying germs away on their hands.
Rock-a-bye zzzzzzzz (hammock, the perfect place to nap)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Every culture does it and has done it for centuries, but why rocking puts us to sleep has remained something of a mystery.
Now a research team based at the University of Geneva has provided the explanation, arguing that a swinging motion “exerts a synchronizing action in the brain that reinforces endogenous sleep rhythms.”
Twelve healthy male volunteers, ages 22–38, were asked to nap on a bed that could either remain stationary or rock gently.
All participants were “good sleepers, non-habitual nappers with no excessive daytime sleepiness and had low anxiety levels. Sleep quality and quantity were assessed by questionnaires and actimetry recordings.” The men took two 45-minute afternoon naps (14:30-15:45),
“one with the bed stationary, and one with the bed put in motion (condition order randomized). The motion parameters were set to stimulate vestibular and proprioceptive sensory systems, without causing nausea or any entrainment of cardiac rhythm. In both conditions the naps were spent in complete darkness in a controlled room temperature (21 ± 1°C) and the level of auditory stimulation was around 37 dB. During both sessions, polysomnography data were recorded continuously. Sleep stages and sleep spindles were visually identified by two experienced scorers, blind to the experimental conditions.”
The authors write in their summary in the journal Current Biology that “We show that lying on a slowly rocking bed (0.25 Hz) facilitates the transition from waking to sleep, and increases the duration of stage N2 sleep (ed. note: the deepest point of sleep during a nap). Rocking also induces a sustained boosting of slow oscillations and spindle activity. It is proposed that sensory stimulation associated with a swinging motion exerts a synchronizing action in the brain that reinforces endogenous sleep rhythms. These results thus provide scientific support to the traditional belief that rocking can soothe our sleep.”
The team was led by Laurence Bayer, Irina Constantinescu, Michel Muehlethaler and Sophie Schwarz, from the neuroscience department at the Hug university hospitals in Geneva and the Swiss Center for Afffective Sciences, joined by Stephen Perrig and Julie Vienne from the Swiss Laboratory at Hug and the CIG in Lausanne, with Pierre-Paul Vidal from the Unviersity Paris Descartes.
Zzzzzzzzzz
Paint the world red, Blood Donor day slogan (photo: Oliver O'Hanlon/WHO)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The jet d’eau, Geneva’s famous water fountain, ran red 14 June to mark World Blood Donor day, but beyond the colourful display and other events, The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva marked the day by releasing new global data which shows that 70 percent of volunteer, unpaid blood donors are men. The average age is higher in wealthier countries, 44, compared to developing countries, average age 25. The last figure is explained partly by these countries’ younger populations, says the WHO.
Progress is being made in getting more people to donate blood, with the number of countries getting all their blood supplies from voluntary, unpaid donors seeing a 50 percent increase from 2002 to 2008. India was the country with the most impressive progress in 2010: the number of donors rose from 3.6 million to 4.6m.
Cucumbers: when will we learn to love them again?
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “It’s the bean sprouts”, the source of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, Reinhard Burger, Germany’s head of infectious diseases programme, said Friday morning 10 June. The actual sprouts that are behind what the WHO labels the “the unusual enteroaggregative verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (EAggEC VTEC) O104:H4 bacterium” have not yet been pinpointed.
Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Food Safety and the Robert Koch-Institute will publish a joint press release Friday.
The number of new infections has been falling in recent days, but E.coli itself has killed 6 people in Germany and the HUS complication has killed 26, with an additional death in Sweden, according to WHO worldwide figures for the outbreak. In total, 2,909 people have been infected.
The European Union said Tuesday it would set aside €210 million for farmers touched by the outbreak, but a European farmers organization, Colos, says the losses are reaching €400m a week. Spanish farmers, the largest fruit and vegetable producers in Europe, calculate they have lost €200m in business since the start of the outbreak at the end of April, and German farmers say they have lost €60m, according to news agency AFP/TSR (Fr).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The agriculture minister for Lower Saxony in Germany announced Monday 6 June that earlier suspicions may not be correct, that an organic farm in the region is the source of a dangerous outbreak of E. coli.
Initial tests led researchers to suspect the farm’s produce, but authorities Monday said that 23 of the 40 samples taken have come up negative for the E. coli strain that has so far killed 22 people and put more than 2,000 in hospital suffering from the infection or HUS, a complication. The other samples must still be analyzed, reports Der Spiegel. Two women who work at the farm have come down with diarrhea and one has been diagnosed with a form of E. coli, but Spiegel doesn’t specify if it is the strain that has caused the outbreak.
The farmer uses no fertilizers and has no animals, but Reuters quotes a London microbiology professor as saying this eliminate the possibility of the bacteria thriving.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Chemical products that pose a serious health danger are parading as “herbal” weight loss products, sold online and imported illegally, warns Swissmedic, which has responsibility in Switzerland for overseeing medical and therapeutic products.
Two ingredients in particular, Sibutramine and Rimonabant, both of which are banned substances in Europe, were found in 122 samples of various slimming products that were seized in 2010.
The products were seized by customs as illegal imports.
Only six products were actually “herbal” and only 10 were “genuine medicinal products”, while four contained active substances that were not the ones listed, including two that have not been tested on humans.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World Health Organization (WHO) figures Sunday 5 June showed that 21 people have died from E. coli or HUS, which is provoked by E. coli, while in Germany public health authorities in Lower Saxony say they have a “really hot lead” to the cause: bean and other sprouts from a farm 70km south of Hamburg are looking like the culprit.
Gert Lindemann, agriculture minister for the state of Lower Saxony said at a press conference that the deadly strain of the bacteria has now been traced to a farm in the Uelzen area; German media say it is near Bienenbuettel. The farm has been closed while the investigation continues. Reuters notes that “Lindemann said that not only beansprouts, but also alfalfa sprouts, mung bean sprouts, radish sprouts and arugula sprouts from the farm might be connected to the outbreak. Raw sprouts are popular among Germans and often mixed in salads or added to sandwiches.”
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The WHO in Geneva, which keeps the official world tally on infectious diseases, with all affected countries reporting to it, published its latest figures at 18:00 Sunday:
Germany, HUS: 627, with 15 deaths
Germany, E. coli: 1,536, with 6 death (note: does not include the HUS cases)
| Country | HUS | EHEC |
|---|---|---|
| Austria | 0 | 2 |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 7 | 11 |
| France | 0 | 10 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 4 |
| Norway | 0 | 1 |
| Poland | 1 | 0 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 |
| Sweden | 15 | 31 |
| Switzerland | 0 | 3 |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 8 |
In addition, the WHO reports that the United States has published information about two suspected E. coli cases linked to the German outbreak. In the figures above, “all except 1 of the above HUS and EHEC patients had travelled to or from Germany during the incubation period for infection, typically 3–4 days after exposure (range 2–10 days),” according to the WHO.
Countries that are affected are also reporting their cases to Germany, and European countries are reporting to the secure Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as well.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva late Thursday 2 June confirmed earlier reports that the E. coli strain that has been identified as the killer of 16 people in Europe is a new strain. It issued this statement:
“The strain of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) 0104:H4 isolated from cases in the EHEC infection outbreak in Germany is a rare one, seen in humans before, but never in an EHEC outbreak. This has been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Escherichia and Klebsiella, the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark.
“The molecular/genetic features of this pathogen are important in helping authorities to identify cases in other countries that could be associated with the outbreak in Germany and to identify the source of the outbreak. While epidemiological and laboratory investigations continue, the source of the outbreak still remains unknown.
The WHO says that “cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) [Ed. note: a complication that involves the kidneys] and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) continue to rise in Germany. Ten countries have now reported cases to WHO/Europe.” Nine people in Germany have died from HUS and six from E. coli. One person in Sweden has died.
Two people in Switzerland have been infected and both are being treated for E. coli. They had recently been in northern Germany.
The WHO said Thursday that more than 1,500 people are hospitalized in Germany, about one-third of them being treated for HUS and the other for E. coli. The number of those treated for the serious complications that HUS brings, 97 more on 1 June than the day before, is rapidly increasing, the WHO points out.
People should continue to use careful hygiene, the WHO recommends: “The normal hygiene measures should be observed, hand washing after toilet use and before touching food. Anyone who has developed bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain, and who has had contact recently with northern Germany, should seek medical advice urgently.”
Links to other sites: CTV, Canada, Der Spiegel, Germany, European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, WHO “five keys to safer food” page
©2011 Globe Cartoon / Patrick Chappatte
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – To say Monday 31 May was a day that went up in smoke for the The World Health Organization (WHO) would be an exaggeration, but media attention for its annual “world no tobacco day” appeared to take second place to cells phones and cancer. Global media instead reacted with an instant buzz of headlines Tuesday to a WHO press release entitled “Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic”.
A working group that met at the International Agency for Cancer Research (IACR) in Lyon from 24-31 May concluded that cell phones should be given a new cancer-risk classification, saying this is “based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer associated with wireless phone use”.
The group noting that with five billion phones in use globally, this is a potential public health risk that warrants more study.
Switzerland has nine million cell phones.
The 31 scientists from 14 countries were meeting to assess potential carcinogenic hazards from this exposure. Dr Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California in the US, who chaired the group, said in a statement that “the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”
The IACR’s classifications:
| Group 1 | Carcinogenic to humans | 107 agents | |
| Group 2A | Probably carcinogenic to humans | 59 | |
| Group 2B | Possibly carcinogenic to humans | 266 | |
| Group 3 | Not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans | 508 | |
| Group 4 | Probably not carcinogenic to humans | 1 |
The WHO cites growing concern in recent years over possible cell phone and cancer links. It pointed out that the jury is not in yet on links, and that more research needs to be done.
“The evidence was reviewed critically, and overall evaluated as being limited among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma, and inadequate to draw conclusions for other types of cancers. The evidence from occupational and environmental exposures … was similarly judged inadequate. The working group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40 percent increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period).”
Four years of Swiss research: no clear health link but cell phones affect sleep patterns
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The 2011 measles epidemic that spiked in Basel, Geneva and Lausanne in the first four months of the year is moving on to eastern Switzerland, figures published Monday by the Federal Public Health Office show, with 515 cases throughout the country from 1 January to 24 May.
The 2011 epidemic appears to have reached its peak in western Switzerland, but numbers are now dropping. By mid-May, Geneva (110 cases) and Vaud (93) had felt the impact of a major epidemic in France, while Basel, with 57 cases, was affected mainly by a group that is reluctant to vaccinate its children.
Cantons Aargau, Saint Gall, Thurgau, Zurich, but also Neuchatel and Ticino are now seeing a rapid increase in cases.
Outbreaks in 2009 and 2010 prompted large vaccination programmes in the Swiss Army and at EPFL in Lausanne, after cases of the highly contagious disease developed. Geneva schools sent letters in April 2011 alerting parents to the need to vaccinate and follow up with a second vaccination, as the disease spread.
Public health authorities are again urging people to make sure they have had a followup vaccination if they had only one, and to be vaccinated if they were not. The disease, also called rubeola, is a respiratory tract infection that requires being quarantined. Complications can be more severe in adults: 41 percent of the Swiss cases since December 2010 have been adults over the age of 20. In 88 percent of the cases, the patients were not vaccinated at all and in 7 percent they were not sufficiently covered.
Most fresh produce sold in Switzerland in May comes from Switzerland, says Bern (photo: Fully, Valais, lettuce)
Update 13:45 BERN, SWITZERLAND – Ed. note: a 12th person died Monday in Germany from what appears to be E.coli, and pressure on German hospitals is increasing due to the high number of people hospitalized and in intensive care. AFP (TSR, Fr) reports that some hospitals are appealing for blood donors because of the sudden need for blood plasma.
German public health authorities and researchers at the Robert Koch Institute are still trying to determine the source and precise nature of the deadly E.coli outbreak in their country. The death of an 11th person was announced Monday and a specialist in western Germany, interviewed on television Sunday night, noted that while Germany normally sees about 1,000 cases a year, it has had 1,200 cases in the past 10 days.
The strain appears to be particularly virulent, with patients not responding to normal treatments.
Some 300 persons have been treated for the infection.
Swiss and other non-German cases so far all linked to Germany
The Swiss government Friday 27 May offered an update on E. coli bacteria cases in the country, saying that of the 20 registered since the start of 2011, a figure in line with other years, just one has been identified as possibly belonging to the strain that has caused 10 deaths in Germany.
Germany, Austria extend ban to other fresh produce
Germany and Austria over the weekend announced that they are recommending to consumers to avoid buying lettuce and eggplant (aubergine) as well as cucumbers and in Austria tomatoes, saying the source of the bacteria has not yet been fully identified. Cucumbers from Spain were initially listed as the culprit, and these are still under suspicion, but there is no confirmation that this is the only source.
Spanish authorities reacted angrily Monday, saying that Germany and Austria are over-reacting in condemning Spanish agricultural products, reports El Pais (Sp).
European health authorities say there is no evidence the infections have spread beyond Germany, but they urge caution and good hygiene in handling food.
“Currently there is still no evidence that any potential contaminated food product would have been distributed outside of Germany,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement issued Friday. “Thorough investigations ongoing in the country aim at identifying the source of infection, and are crucial to further determining the scope and magnitude of this risk.
“Rapid identification of potential cases linked to this outbreak, within Germany or among persons who have travelled to Germany since mid-April/beginning of May, is essential to prevent the development of severe disease. Secondary clusters of cases from person-to-person exposure may occur and thus personal hygiene messages are important.”
Swiss produce mainly from Switzerland this time of year, but good hygiene urged
The Swiss Office of Public Health has confirmed that most fresh produce on sale in Switzerland at the moment comes from Switzerland, but it offers the public several recommendations for avoiding food contamination (see below).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Customs officers in Geneva, at the Bardonnex post, had the slippery task Monday 23 May of destroying 2,470kg of melting margarine that was carried last week in a regular truck, under tarpaulin, from Portugal. The wholesaler in Geneva who ordered the goods told officials that he was planning to re-refrigerate it and supply the bakery business with it.
They pointed out that not only did he not have a license to import perishable foods, but that margarine left unrefrigerated for 90 hours in the heat poses a serious health risk. The quantity imported could have been used for 200,000 croissants.
Customs officials say that in the Mont Blanc tunnel fire in 1999 that cost several lives and closed the tunnel for months, margarine and flour fueled the fire. Margarine must normally be transports in a seal refrigerated truck.
The truck carrying the Portuguese load passed through several tunnels in France en route to Bardonnex.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swissmedic, which oversees drug approvals in Switzerland, has accepted a new treatment for breast cancer, Eribulin (Halaven®). The drug was developed by Japanese research firm Eisai.
It was approved 18 May for use in Switzerland as a monotherapy treatment of patients with locally advanced and metastatic breast carcinoma with progression after prior therapy with an anthracycline, a taxane and capecitabine. More than 5,000 women in Switzerland have the disease; about 1,400 are likely to die, annually.
Worldwide, 1.3 million cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year.
Eribulin was approved in the USA in November 2010, in Singapore in February 2011, in Europe in March 2011 and Japan in April 2011. It has already been launched in the US, UK, Nordic countries and Japan.
Dr Matti Aapro, dean of the Multidisciplinary Oncology Institute at Genolier says:
Measles, photo: US Center for Disease Control
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has seen 497 cases of measles declared since the start of 2011, compared to 211 for the same period a year earlier, the weekly newsletter from Swiss public health authorities shows.
Geneva (110 cases) and Vaud (93) are feeling the impact of a major epidemic in France, while Basel, with 57 cases, is affected mainly by a group that is reluctant to vaccinate its children.
Doctors are legally obliged to report suspected measles cases rapidly to public health authorities and anyone with the contagious disease will be quarantined. The federal public health department reminds anyone who has not had a second vaccination to be sure to have one in order to be protected against the disease, which can cause severe health problems and occasionally death. A 12-year-old girl died in Geneva in a major epidemic in 2009.
Background, GenevaLunch articles on measles in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Heat. Sun. Swimming. Summer is here, but so are Geneva Lake’s infamous Cercariae, commonly known as duck fleas. Making an early appearance this year, they have already proven to be a problem, even though they usually appear in warmer water, around 20 degrees Celsius.
Map of beaches and water quality for 2010 around Lake Geneva ©CIPEL (click on image to view larger)
However, there are several different conditions that favor the growth of Cercariae, the microscopic female larvae of a parasite, says the International Commission for the Protection of Lake Geneva: an abundance of lake vegetation, snails and ducks.
How the duck fleas get into human skin
The parasites already on the ducks lay eggs that pass into the bloodstream and are eventually excreted into the water. They hatch into miracidia and colonize in snails where they mature into Cercariae. These larvae find ducks and burrow beneath their skin to conclude the cycle.
But from time to time, the Cercariae mistake lake swimmers for ducks, and penetrate the outer layer of human skin. The larvae die there, resulting in a very itchy rash called Swimmer’s itch, or cercarial dermatitis.
Life cycle of Cercariae ©CDC
How to protect yourself
You can take steps to protect yourself, says Secoe, the Geneva water ecology service, even though there is currently no duck flea repellent available. A shower after a dip in the lake and toweling off vigorously can help to eliminate the Cercariae before they have time to penetrate the skin. To reduce the possibility of coming into contact with the parasite, you should avoid swimming in warm, shallow water for long periods of time since this is where snails are most likely to live.
Dealing with the rash
If you do get a rash, try not to scratch it because this may lead to secondary infections. Cold compresses, a mild cortisone cream, an antihistamine or calamine lotion should help. Normally, the rash disappears on its own after a couple of weeks, otherwise contact a dermatologist or a pharmacist.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Canadian woman who has admitted helping her elderly and ailing mother to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide is asking her provincial court to challenge a Canadian law that penalizes people who assist suicides.
Kathleen Carter, from Langley, British Columbia, was 89 years old and suffering from a painful chronic disease, spinal stenosis, that left her unable to care for herself.
She asked her daughter Lee in 2009 to help her end her life. The two plus Lee’s husband travelled to Zurich in January 2010, where the elderly woman died.
The name of the Dignitas clinic is not specifically mentioned, but the clinic has developed notoriety as one of the few places in the world that accepts foreigners who want to end their lives. The clinic has come under increasing pressure in recent years (see GenevaLunch related stories).
The Langley Advance, a local paper, reports that “this week, Carter, Hollis Johnson, and Dr William Shoichet of Victoria along with the BC Civil Liberties Association are asking the BC Supreme Court to overturn the Criminal Code provisions against assisted suicide. Their legal challenge says the laws are unconstitutional.”
The newspaper says the five-day trip cost the family $30,000 and that Kathleen Carter, according to her daughter, very much regretted the need for secrecy, which did not allow her to say goodbye to her fellow nursing home residents. Her children were told ahead but not the grandchildren.
In another case which is raising questions about laws covering the right of the elderly and unwell to commit suicide with assistance, the Sydney Morning Herald this week carries the story of a couple who decided to die together, after 60 years of marriage.
The bfu's campaign helped to increase the number of helmet-wearers on Swiss slopes (photo ©2011 Tara S. Kerpelman)
The Swiss snow sports safety campaign, “1,000 accidents a day – protect yourself with a helmet,” has received good marks: an evaluation by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) says the 2007-2010 marketing campaign was an overall success.
The percentage of people wearing helmets while skiing or snowboarding went up from 52 to 76 percent between 2007 and 2010, over the course of the campaign.
The bfu partnered with the Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) and Rega (Swiss air rescue) for the campaign. It argued that the main reasons skiers and snowboarders did not wear helmets were they were not conscious of the dangers involved, they thought they were not vulnerable to the dangers, or they found that helmets were too uncomfortable to wear.
The report says the campaign reduced the number of people who fit into these categories.
The increase was smaller in French-speaking Switzerland, where it went up more than 16 percentage points, than in German-speaking areas, where the increase was greater than 26 percent, the report says.
Change in the percentage of people wearing helmets (source: bfu.ch)
There was more familiarity with the bfu’s campaign over time: only 47 percent of those surveyed in 2008 had heard of the campaign but this rose to 69 percent by 2010, with a slightly more significant increase in the 18 to 25 age group, 69 percent in 2010, up from 46 percent in 2008.
The campaign was probably not the only or even main reason for the increase in helmet-wearers, the report says, but it notes that the bfu’s efforts supported and reinforced the other reasons.
These probably include more celebrities and sports stars seen with helmets and, over time a generation, following the example of those who are older who have begun to wear helmets.
Don’t eat armadillo meat and don’t handle them! researchers caution
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Direct contact with armadillos can lead to leprosy infection, a team of researchers in Switzerland and in the USA has confirmed, using what they call advanced DNA analysis and extensive field work.
The Global Health Institute at EPFL in Lausanne and NPHA (National Hansen’s Disease Program) report 28 April in the New England Journal of Medicine that a never-before-seen strain of Mycobacterium leprae has emerged in the Southern United States and that it is transmitted through contact with armadillos carrying the disease.
Only about 150 cases of the disease appear each year in the US, traditionally imported by people who have worked abroad in areas with leprosy. Researchers are quick to point out that the disease is treatable with antibiotics and that 90 percent of people who come into contact with leprosy, officially known as Hansen’s Disease, fight off the infection spontaneously.
Source: EPFL (click on image to view larger)
Public health authorities in the US became alarmed when they realized that one-third of the cases they were seeing were infected people who had never been outside the US.
Armadillos have been known since about 1970 to also carry the disease.
The new study shows inter-species contamination and the presence of a unique strain.
“There is a very strong association between the geographic location of the presence of this particular strain of M. leprae and the presence of armadillos in the Southern US,” says Stewart Cole, head of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne who is known as a leader in the field of leprosy bacilli genome. “Our research provides clear DNA evidence that the unique strain found in armadillos is the same as the one in certain humans.”
The new strain of the bacteria, named 3I-2V1, was found in 28 armadillos out of 33 wild ones included in the study, and in 22 patients, all of whom reported no foreign residence, out of the 50 who took part in the study. The researchers used genome sequencing to identify the new strain and cross check it with other known strains from Europe and Asia. They used genotyping to identify and classify the population infected. It became clear that leprosy patients who never travelled outside the US but lived in areas where infected armadillos are prevalent (see map) were infected with the same strain as the armadillos, EPFL reports.
The researchers make three recommendations: avoid frequent direct contact with the animals, don’t cook or consume their meat and monitor the expansion of their range, as they move north in the US.
José Ramirez is a former migrant worker from Houston who contracted the disease after hunting and eating armadillo meat. Ramirez offers a fourth recommendation: get rid of the stigma attached to the disease, which is a bacterial infection that can be cured. “We need to take this opportunity to give leprosy patients a voice and to learn to not use the word ‘leper’ that has negative connotations around the world, a stigma that should be replaced with an understanding of the disease and its causes.”
Ramirez struggled for more than five years with the disease before it was properly diagnosed. He is now disease-free after receiving antibiotic treatment.
How pure is your cuppa joe? - Cartoon by A. Rosa, ISO
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO), has developed a new standard to certify “the purity and quality of soluble coffee powder” and a tool to “detect possible adulterations” in soluble/instant coffee.
It seems that sipping your favorite instant cuppa Joe labeled “100% pure soluble coffee” might leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
Labels, according to the ISO advisory, are sometimes incorrect, downright misleading and in some cases hide nothing but counterfeit products.
The ISO, considered as the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards, says the new criteria are based on the “analysis of over 1,000 samples of commercial soluble coffees and their statistically sound evaluation.”
According to the non-governmental organization, the new outline will help certify the purity and quality of soluble coffee powder.
The standard, ISO 24114 is intended for use by third parties to control its purity and quality.
Are you a lark or an owl? Hormones may play a key role
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The University of Zurich’s Pharmacology and Toxicology laboratory is actively seeking “individuals suitable” for the next stage of its Chronobiology and Sleep Research project, already underway, using a method the laboratory has developed to text sleep patterns in real time.
Previous studies have been limited by the difficulty of observing normal sleep patterns under laboratory conditions.
“One major obstacle in studying the human circadian oscillator is the difficulty of measuring properties such as period length. So far, this task has been achieved in only a few heroic studies employing extensive subject observation under controlled conditions”, researchers note on their web page.
Journal report shows hormonal basis for changing sleep patterns
The work continues with research reported 11 April in the journal PNAS, a new study from researchers at universities in Basel and Zurich who have found a hormonal basis for the changing sleep patterns that people undergo during old age.
An article “Serum factors in older individuals change cellular clock properties“, paves the way for a possible drug-based remedy to counteract these changes in sleep schedules.
Each person’s daily circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle of sleep and consciousness, functions via a system of cell-autonomous clocks that can be found in nearly every cell of the body, all of which are controlled by the brain.
As the cells’ molecular make-up does not alter during the aging process, Lucia Pagani from Basel, Steven A Brown from Zurich and their group looked into a possible hormonal influence on the changes.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -”All the samples tested up to now have been negative and the products may be sold,” the Swiss federal council said about Japanese foods in a statement issued late Thursday 14 April. “Food products coming from Japan and sold in Switzerland pose no danger to health.”
The announcement was part of a broader statement about Switzerland bringing its checks on Japanese food into line with newly revised European Union standards in the wake of recent radiation fears in Japan. The Swiss federal government noted the importance of maintaining identical standards, to help Japanese exporters, Swiss importers and consumers.
Ed. note: the second paragraph has a mistake and we are waiting for the corrected letter from canton Geneva. It should read: Family members will be immunized (not vaccinated).
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Parents of children in canton Geneva schools will be asked to ensure their children are fully vaccinated against measles, with 80 cases now reported since January.
Several of those who have become ill were hospitalized, says cantonal public health doctor C-A Wyler Lazarevic, who has sent a letter to schools through the Department of Education.
GenevaLunch has obtained a copy of the letter, reproduced in full here. Note that a person is only fully immunized if he or she has had the disease or had two vaccinations, not just the initial early childhood shot.
Geneva’s current outbreak is an extension of the measles epidemic that began in France in late 2010 and which is still not under control.
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Measles, photo: US Center for Disease Control
Regular exercise from an early age is one key to reducing obesity
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A group of universities, including EPFL in Lausanne, is behind one of the latest encouraging signs of new treatments for diabetes, obesity and possibly several cancers. Their research into the cell metabolism action of a group of cancer drugs called Paribs indicates that the drugs do more than repair the DNA in cancer cells, the work for which they are now used.
At the same time, the UK has just published the results of an audit on the effectiveness of bariatric (weight loss) surgery at reducing Type 2 diabetes, which shows that 85 percent of patients who had the surgery showed significant improvement in their diabetes a year later.
The rapid increase in the rate of diabetes in the developed world has encouraged more research into solutions, often linked to obesity and excess weight. Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 220 million people worldwide have diabetes type 2, but in 2005 it forecast that the number could double by 2030.
EPFL’s press release on the university researchers’ findings, published 6 April in journal Cell Metabolism, explains how Paribs might help:
“Cancer cells have the property of using glucose as an energy source instead of burning fatty acids. The scientists have noticed that Paribs enable their metabolism to be modified so that they begin to use them. This has the effect of weakening them and therefore stopping the progression of the cancer. The cells of patients suffering from type 2 diabetes, obesity or oxidation disorders share this characteristic of running on glucose.”
