Archivo categoría «Salud Pública»

Ricard V. Solé. Laboratorio de Sistemas Complejos, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 07/04/06):

Tema: Pocos virus se han cobrado en el pasado un número tan alto de víctimas como la gripe. La posibilidad de una nueva pandemia ha generado una alerta más que justificada tanto a nivel social como en términos de su posible impacto en las economías de todo el mundo.

Resumen: La Organización Mundial de la Salud ha señalado que sólo 40 países del mundo han desarrollado planes de prevención contra la pandemia de gripe. Sin embargo, la gripe de 1918 y otras pandemias fueron … Seguir leyendo

By Kendall Hoyt, an assistant professor at Dartmouth Medical School and an associate with the New England Center for Emergency Preparedness (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 03/03/06):

As avian flu makes its way from Asia across Europe, the United States has yet to meet the challenges that this potential epidemic and other biological threats pose to our health and security. One challenge in particular needs attention: the shortfall in countermeasures like vaccines.

Most biological threats are likely to be unannounced and unfamiliar (like the outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003), so rapid drug development is critical. With few exceptions, … Seguir leyendo

By Simon Jenkins (THE GUARDIAN, 24/02/06):

Who says nobody gives credit to ministers where it is due? Let us hear it for Margaret Beckett. She is playing avian flu absolutely right. Invited to panic by a coalition of scaremongers, lobbyists, academics, headline writers and nutcases, Beckett and her junior, Ben Bradshaw, at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are keeping their heads.

No, they are not quarantining something called “the national flock” at the bidding of the tabloids. No, they are not hiring every agri-spiv in the land and paying them millions to cull, jab, immobilise or incarcerate … Seguir leyendo

By Magnus Linklater (THE TIMES, 22/02/06):

The goverment’s response to the threat of bird flu in Britain is heart-sinkingly predictable. As soon as the first infected creature is identified, there will be mass slaughter around the site where it is found, and isolation of any threatened premises. All birds within a fixed radius will be eliminated and movement restricted. Vaccination has been all but ruled out — indeed there has been no attempt even to order up the vaccines that other countries, like the Netherlands, are using. If all this sounds depressingly familiar — it is. As last week’s devastating … Seguir leyendo

By Wendy Orent, an Atlanta-based writer and the author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/10/05):

For two years, a deadly strain of chicken flu known as H5N1 has been killing birds in Asia. While slightly more than 100 people are known to have contracted the disease, and 60 of them have died, there is still no sign that the flu has begun to spread from person to person.

That hasn’t prevented a recent outbreak of apocalyptic warnings from health officials and experts about the specter of a … Seguir leyendo