Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland confirmed 2,423 new cases of swine flu in the week ending 21 November, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) announced Friday 27 November, bringing the total to 6,691 since the outbreak began. The pandemic has already claimed four deaths in Switzerland, all from high risk patients. FOPH estimates that almost 27,000 people have consulted their doctors about the flu country-wide.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s second death from A/H1N1 flu has taken place just a week after the first, but doctors point out that the patient, a woman over 50 with diabetes, could well have died if she contracted regular flu. TSR quotes the head of public health in Zurich as saying that in a normal year Zurich alone has some 100 flu-related deaths, generally caused by complications from existing health problems.
image: ch.ch
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A small baby who died last week is Switzerland’s first death related to the A/H1N1 flu, authorities in canton Basel Land have confirmed. No details about the child or the exact cause of death have been released. The federal health department says the flu is now growing more rapidly, exponentially, with 773 cases, twice the number of the previous week.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Swiss Federal Health Office web site on A/H1N1 pandemic, in English
I'd rather go skiing
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A vast majority of Swiss are not interested in getting a swine flu (A/H1N1) vaccination, when the campaign starts in two weeks time, according to a survey by pollster Isopublic conducted late last week, and published 1 November. Of 606 people around Switzerland surveyed, 86.4 percent of the representative sample said they were not afraid of the flu virus and would not be getting flu shots. Most of the people polled were aware of the government’s information campaign, but discarded the dangers.
The government has bought 13 million doses, and has said the vaccinations could begin 16 November, after several delays.
Background: “Switzerland buys 13 million doses of A/H1N1 vaccine“, 18 September 2009, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites:Romandie News, Sonntagsblick, TSR,
Flu virus © 2009 Novartis AG
Update 19.09 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland joins other major industrialized nations in reserving 10 percent of the vaccines for donation to poorer countries, under the auspices of the World Health Organization, an initiative proposed by US President Barack Obama, the Swiss government announced.
The Swiss government has bought 13 million doses of swine flu vaccine from Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to cover the 7.7 million population in the country. Deliveries will start at the end of September. The cantons will organize vaccinations, while the costs will be shared among the central government, the cantons and the health insurance industry, the government announced 18 September.
Health workers and those who work with infants under six months of age, as well as people at risk will be vaccinated before the general population, the government says. The cost to individuals will be slightly less than CHF20 per vaccine. The charge covers materials and the actual vaccination, but not the vaccine dose.
Latest tests by GSK in Canada indicate that a single dose of the vaccine provides immunity against the flu. Most countries have budgeted a double-dose vaccination campaign against swine flu.
Related: Swiss government site on prevention, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The leaders of the world are not being spared swine flu: Alvaro Uribe, president of Colombia, has been diagnosed with swine flu after attending a meeting of the Union of South American Nations in Argentina last week. BBC
Not enough of this for Kuoni
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s largest travel agent, Kuoni, said it lost CHF51 million in the first six months of 2009, against revenues of CHF26m in the same period of 2008. The global financial crisis, the economic downturn, the negative effects of currency fluctuations, and the incipient swine flu epidemic all contributed to a difficult first half.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A doctor who works in the maternity ward at the Cantonal University Hospital (Chuv) in Lausanne, just back from holidays abroad, infected 2 patients and 10 co-workers with A/H1N1 flu when he went to work despite feeling poorly. He contracted the flu on holiday, and went back to work 31 July. He was sent home because he had a fever. The hospital contacted everyone he came into close contact with that day. Only two patients contracted the illness and neither of them are in danger. The 10 co-workers who became ill were also sent home.
Related: 24Heures (Fre)
Lyons, France (GenevaLunch) - Ireland’s former Taoiseach (prime minister) Garrett FitzGerald, 83, and a group of 20 people, mainly family, staying with him at a chateau in Auvergne, France, have been quarantined as a precaution after several members of the party showed symptoms of flu, reports AFP. The symptoms are reportedly mild and only one person was given Tamiflu as a precautionary measure.
Viral Flu, © 2009 Novartis AG
Basel and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drugs maker Novartis said 5 August it had begun trials of a swine flu vaccine on humans in Germany, the US and the UK. If the trials are successful, the vaccine could be approved by regulators using a fast-track approvals process in Europe and the US. Large-scale production would then be ramped up in time for the northern hemisphere’s flu season in autumn.
All major drugs manufacturers are racing to finish human trials in order to begin production of a vaccine. Australian drugs manufacturers announced last month that they had begun human trials.
Fast track procedures take into account strain changes
The WHO (World Health Organization) says that fast-track procedures worked out by regulators in many countries are based on existing procedures for approving seasonal flu vaccines, which take into account small changes in the flu virus, so-called “strain changes.”
© 2009 WHO
Geneva and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) recommends that people who come down with symptoms of the flu avoid contact with others to stop the spread of the disease. A humourous new advertising campaign (link below) says it quite clearly. This means staying away from work until the symptoms have gone away, or to care for sick members of the family. In a front-page article 4 August, Le Temps (Fre) asks whether this means that employers will not insist on having a medical cerificate for any absence longer than three days, as stipulated by law: to leave one’s bed to go and see a doctor defeats the purpose of the quarantine.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chagas disease is one of the largest debilitating and killer diseases in Latin America, but it is not winning the battle it needs for public attention in order to reduce the number of its victims. It is considered a neglected tropical disease by the WHO (World Health Organization), which put it on the agenda for the May 2009 World Health Assembly, in part because it appears to be traveling, thanks to eco-tourism. It was bumped when the agenda was reduced to allow the meeting to focus on the new pandemic, A/H1N1.
Chagas disease appears to be spreading from isolated rural areas to urban areas as people move to cities, but there is little prevention for the insect-borne disease, no standardized diagnostic test and huge knowledge gaps remain about effective treatment.
New Media campaign against A/H1N1
[public health video] Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fight against the A/H1N1 virus in the French-speaking part of Switzerland is taking on a new face, a drag face.
The Federal Office of Public Health has started its swine flu awareness media campaign, “United against the flu” with a bit of humour: a comedian dressed in drag.
Verbier, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – About 50 residents at Les Elfes, an international summer camp in Swiss ski resort Verbier, canton Valais, are being treated for A/H1N1 swine flu after coming down with symptoms last week, the latest outbreak among groups of school-age children and youths in the region. Valais cantonal authorities said in a release (Fre) that the situation was “under control”. About 40 young people and 10 monitors came down with the flu. The camp’s other participants were treated and let go. Some of the children have left for home already, according to the press release.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Pharmaceutical giant Novartis saw net sales grow 8 percent in local currencies, but slip 2 percent in US dollars in the first six months of 2009. Exchange rates had significant impact on profits, which fell by 12 percent to CHF4.32 billion, compared to the same period in 2008. Company CEO Daniel Vasella notes in the company’s press release on results that the company expects to “continue record underlying results in constant currencies.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The swine flu (A/H1N1) is now unstoppable, and although so far the “severity is moderate” countries must now take measures to vaccinate their populations, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted after a high-level meeting Monday 13 July in Geneva. Its group of experts says there is not enough vaccine to cover all needs. To ensure an equitable distribution among countries it issued guidelines calling for health workers to be covered and populations at risk to be vaccinated before other groups.
Verbier, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An international camp in Verbier has 14 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 among its students, ages 8-18, and another 20 students are being tested. Those who are sick have been isolated and are being given medical care, says the public health department in Valais, but none of the students are a cause for worry.
Versoix, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Six cases of swine flu have been confirmed among children attending the College du Léman summer school at Versoix, near Geneva, reports Romandie news. They will spend the next seven days in isolation in a nearby villa. Four other cases are under investigation.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland has adapted its laws for travelers crossing the Swiss border to reflect new needs with the A(H1N1) swine flu spreading. The new rules go into effect 1 July.
At least 1,200 passengers on board the Spanish-owned Ocean Dream cruise liner off the coast of Venezuela were refused permission to land 17 June after three crew members were diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu. Eleven more crew members are suspected of being infected. “The virus was detected in three crew members and the boat must now stay in quarantine until June 24,” said Venezuelan health official Jorge Alchaer, reports the BBC. Venezuela has 25 confirmed cases of the flu, according to the WHO (World Health Organization). Local Venezuelan news sources report that the 376 Venezuelan passengers have been allowed onto the island of Maragarita for testing. Reuters, WHO, El Nacional (Spa)
As the World Health Organization (WHO) announces phase six of the pandemic A/H1N1 swine flu 11 June, a curious fact jumps out from the map that the organization publishes each day with its statistics. Not one sub-Saharan African country has reported a single case of the new flu. The only African country with officially reported cases is Egypt, with 10 (11 June).
On the face of it, the populations in many of Africa’s countries would be prime candidates for contracting flu. They are poor, often malnourished, suffering from war and disease in many places, and crowded into teeming cities with poor provision of basic services. How have they avoided A/H1N1?
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – After an emergency meeting early this afternoon the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the the A/H1N1 (swine) flu pandemic had entered its highest phase 6, denoting “sustained community-level outbreaks in at least two WHO regions.” In its latest update 10 June, WHO reported almost 28,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in 74 countries worldwide, with 141 deaths. Sudden spikes in confirmed cases in the past few days have been reported from widely-separated countries like Australia and Chile, prompting WHO concern.
Lausanne, Switzerland (TSR and 20Minutes, Fre) – A doctor who works at the Vaud cantonal hospital (Chuv) in Lausanne came down with symptoms of swine flu (A/H1N1) and has been quarantined and treated with Tamiflu.
Lausanne, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – A Vaud couple, ages 58 and 71, who flew back to Switzerland from New York a week ago, were diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu Monday 1 June. They bring to 10 the total number of cases in Switzerland. The US released its latest figures for the highly infectious disease 1 June and, with more than 10,000 cases, it is now the country hardest hit.
Lausanne, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – A Vaud woman who flew back from New York to Geneva Tuesday has been hospitalized and diagnosed with A/H1N1 (swine flu). Her husband, who was on the same flight and came down with the same symptoms, is being tested. Their young child and the woman’s mother, as well as the husband, are in isolation for seven days. Passengers who were on the flight with the couple are being alerted by public health authorities.
Ed. note: in Britain, a student at Eton College was diagnosed with A/H1N1 and the school has decided to close until 10 June as a result. Princes Harry and William went to Eton. Details: Times
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A woman from canton Basel State was diagnosed at the Basel cantonal hospital with A/H1N1 swine flu in Switzerland, the third case in Switzerland. The national influenza centre in Geneva has not yet confirmed the diagnosis. She flew into Zurich from Washington DC, USA 22 May, announced the Federal Office of Public Health. Swiss health authorities obtained the list of passengers from the airline the woman was traveling on, and they will be informed by health authorities in their own countries.
The WHO World Health Assembly is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland 18-22 May 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Widespread uncertainty concerning the A/H1N1 virus and its so far relatively mild symptoms are complicating the decision-making process about vaccine production. The debate has been a major focal point at the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, 18-22 May.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 16 percent increase in 24 hours in the number of A/H1N1 (swine flu) cases worldwide, from 6,497 confirmed cases Thursday 14 May to 7,500 Friday. During the previous week, the increase was 200 percent. The statistics hide a more complex picture than the dramatic rise in numbers at first appears to show.
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swine flu has now been confirmed in 4,379 cases in 29 countries worldwide, and 49 people have died of the disease, the World Health Organization announced 10 May. On Saturday Argentina, Australia, Japan and Panama became the latest to confirm cases.
In Costa Rica, one man has died, and in the United States another fatality has been confirmed, bringing that country’s total dead to two. Mexico now reports five deaths from the disease.
Related: BBC
Reuters Oddly Enough News features two animals Friday 8 May: Afghanistan’s only pig, normally on display at Kabel’s zoo, has been quarantined since Sunday to calm visitor fears that it might spread swine flu. And a cow headed for the slaughterhouse in Queens, New York, USA, escaped and ran through the streets until it was captured. It will now be taken care of by an animal shelter.
