Viral Flu, © 2009 Novartis AG
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama declared swine flu a national emergency late Friday 23 October, in order to relax some Medicaid and Medicare (national health insurance for the elderly and the poor) rules ahead of a potential surge in cases that could swamp the country’s medical facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the epidemic has increased in the past weeks and is now widespread in 46 of the 50 states. Swine flu activity has reached levels that the seasonal flu variety normally reaches in late November to March, CDC reported 23 October.
People at particular risk are pregnant women, especially those in the latest stage of pregnancy, children under the age of two, and people with pre-existing pulmonary problems, like asthma. In these cases, patients can develop severe symptoms within 3-5 days. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the disease can progress rapidly, leading to respiratory collapse and the urgent need for mechanical respiration.
[includes video] Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two Boston University student interns, one at the World Health Organization, the other at the World Trade Organization, were interviewed by their university’s BU Today, on video, about their experience working in international organizations in Geneva.
The accompanying article and video are reproduced with permission from BU.
By Devin Hahn. Text by Benjamin Hall.
”I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like I had a bit of an edge, having studied under the bright minds at the World Health Organization,” says Tara Vaughn.
Vaughn spent last fall in the Geneva Internship Program, taking courses and working at the WHO in the strategic information unit, focusing on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. Her courses featured daily speakers from different realms of public health, and topics included abortion rights, public health issues that arise from natural disasters, and climate change.
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.
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.”
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?
[with UN TV video] Geneva, Switzerland and Bonn, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Eighteen United Nations and non-UN aid agencies 8 June issued a joint statement arguing for “humanitarian impacts” to be included in the new climate change protocol. A December meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark of ministers from around the world will seek to replace the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997. A new agreement must “set out a workable approach to help the world counter the impacts of extreme weather events and environmental degradation on vulnerable communities,” the Inter-Agency Standing Committee argues.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A mid-way report from the World Health Organization (WHO) on how well nations are doing in their efforts to meet health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) shows some progress, particularly in reducing childhood mortality by 27 percent since 1990. Some countries are not on track, however, to meet the goal of reducing mortality in children by two-thirds from 1990 figures, and for the goals to improve maternal health and HIV/Aids care, many countries are lagging behind.
The World Health Statistics 2009 is an annual health report by the WHO that looks at 100 statistics provided by the organization’s 193 member countries. This year it provides the first assessment of MDGs progress.
Geneva, Switzerland and Mumbai, India (Financial Times) – Cipla, a company based in Mumbai, India, is shipping a quantity of its generic drug Antiflu, which replicates Basel-based Roche’s Tamiflu, to Mexico. The WHO has said this week that Antiflu is efffective against swine flu (A(H1N1). The Indian drug sells for about two-thirds the price of Tamiflu’s price for poor countries and half the price that Roche sets for Tamiflu in wealthier countries.
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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
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The WHO (World Health Organization) held an emergency meeting Saturday 25 April after cases of swine flu in the US and Mexico were confirmed and suspicions arose in several other countries after travelers returning from Mexico fell ill. The WHO issued a statement that the “Committee . . . agreed that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”
The United States has declared a public health emergency after 20 cases of swine flu were confirmed. There have been no deaths, but in Mexico 81 people have died from illnesses that could be swine flu in recent days and 20 cases of sick people have been confirmed.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Health Organization’s European office in Copenhagen, Denmark is alerting the public to a possible measles epidemic in Europe. The organization 26 February published figures showing that in 2008 there were more than 8,000 cases in Europe in 2008, with 86% of them in six of the wealthiest countries, including Switzerland.
