ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Zurich is home to a tick that is now recognized as Switzerland’s third tick to carry a disease, neoehrlichiosis. To date three people are known to have fallen ill, but since researchers at the University of Zurich confirmed its presence in late 2011, research has shown the tick is making its home [...]
Swiss beekeepers offer public chance to help dying bees
April 15, 2011 by
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss love their bees, to the point where there is a waiting list to rent one through a project to help the bees survive a global bee disease problem whose origins remain murky. Swiss Rentabee is a project was started by Thomas Eberhard three years ago. “After all the bad [...]
Bremen to neuter thousands of cats
March 24, 2011 by
The city of Bremen in Germany has had enough of too many stray cats, so city authorities have agreed to neuter the animals to curb cat population growth, reports the Guardian. “The local cat shelter used to look after around 120 cats at any one time. Now it has 378 on its books and fears [...]
Hospital staff fired: football players’ privacy breach
February 4, 2011 by
Three employees have been fired and two suspended at the University of Iowa Hospitals in the US for breaching patient privacy in a case involved 13 Iowa Hawkeyes football players, the university announced 3 February. The 13 have contracted a rare disease, rhabdomyolysis, according to their coach, and the hospital has been searching for the [...]
Dangerous mosquito found in Switzerland
August 31, 2009 by
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A mosquito capable of transmitting the West Nile Virus and Japanese encephalitis has been found in central Switzerland by researchers at the Parasitology Institute of the University of Zurich. An expert parasitologist, Professor Alexander Mathis, says it can be safely assumed that the presence of the Aedes japonicus, also known as the Asian [...]
Zimbabwe’s woes continue: UN warns 5 million face starvation
August 21, 2009 by
The United Nations is warning that six million people are without safe water and five million face starvation in Zimbabwe, as the country struggles to move out of the economic crisis that has provoked disease and severe food shortages. In the 12 months from August 2008 to July 2009 cholera took the lives of 4,288 [...]
Europe’s beekeepers “could be wiped out in a decade”
April 27, 2009 by
The Irish Times sounds the alarm for Europe’s beekeepers, saying that new evidence published in Apimondia, the industry magazine, shows that Europe’s beekeepers could be out of business within a decade, as bees rapidly fall victim to disease and insecticides.
Zimbabwe prisoners die from lack of health care, food
April 2, 2009 by
Update 4 April Prisoners in Zimbabwe are dying from malnutrition and disease due to lack of supplies and inhumane conditions, reports a documentary by the South African Broadcasting Association, released Tuesday 31 March. It shows images of men too emaciated to stand or bring food to their mouths. “Zimbabwe is undergoing an humanitarian crisis, with [...]
Zimbabwe president says cholera outbreak “stopped” but UN says no
December 11, 2008 by
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe thanked outside aid sources for helping with the cholera epidemic in his country, which he now says is “stopped,” with more than 800 people having died from the disease. The United Nations disagrees, saying the number of sick and dying is rising, and it called 10 December for a campaign to [...]
