For a country, being ready to face an infectious disease outbreak requires, among other things, the capability to reach and involve all the components of the society. Especially those that are more exposed to health threats due to low quality housing, poor nutrition, lack of parental education and weak links to health services, as it happened in the 2010 measles epidemic in Bulgaria, where 90% of recorded cases occurred within the so-called Roma community.
Communication is not merely a matter of passing information from one person to another. Just as important as the message itself is how the message is formulated, and who are the parties involved. This is particularly true in case of an infectious diseases outbreak, when proper risk communication can really make the difference in terms of number of lives saved.
On June 3rd, the European Commission rejected the Stop Vivisection Initiative, which asked to abrogate Directive 2010/63/EU1 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and to put forward a new proposal aimed at phasing out the practice of animal experimentation, making compulsory the use - in biomedical and toxicological research - of data directly relevant for the human species.
Perlman S, McCray PB Jr. N Engl J Med. 2013 Aug 1;369(5):466-7.
Approximately 1 year ago, a novel coronavirus, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), was first identified in the Journal as the causative agent of a lethal pneumonia in several patients in the Middle East. In this issue of the Journal, Assiri et al.4 describe the largest outbreak of MERS-CoV infection thus far, showing that the virus is transmitted from human to human.
A Cochrane reviewer has accused a Canadian health chief of misquoting his work to justify a “tyrannical” policy forcing staff to be vaccinated against flu or wear a mask.
Under the policy, being introduced from 1 December, health workers in British Columbia who refuse to be vaccinated must wear a mask throughout the flu season. All those who have had the vaccine will be given a distinctive badge to wear.
