ATHENSNews (Updated
November 19, 2011)
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Fri, Nov 11 2011
By Kate Kelland
The
But the major public
health concern for the EU is the threat of antibiotic resistance and the rise of
"superbug," or multi drug-resistant, infections, the report said.
"The biggest threat
we face is complacency about infectious diseases. The attitude that the battle
against infectious diseases has been won must be continuously challenged,"
Marc Sprenger, director of the Stockholm-based ECDC, said in a forward to the
report.
"This report
provides plenty of evidence that microbes are still formidable enemies."
The ECDC's annual
epidemiological report is designed to provide a picture of the state of
infectious diseases in
The 2011 report is based
on data from 2009 and 2010 -- since collecting and analyzing disease numbers
takes time -- but officials said the picture it paints is one that has changed
little. If anything, things appear to have got worse.
The "worrying
signals" on measles in Europe noted in 2009 have now translated into a
epidemics of the disease in many countries in
And the World Health
Organization said in September this year that strains of multi drug-resistant
and extensively drug-resistant TB are spreading at an "alarming" rate
in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities act quickly.
Part of the reason for
the tuberculosis epidemics is the rise of antibiotic resistance -- a factor the
ECDC said was vital to get under control, even if economic hard times make it
hard to find the money to invest.
The ECDC warned late last
year that a multi-drug resistant "superbug" from
"In order to fight
against infectious diseases, continuous investment in and improvement of
surveillance systems ... is of outmost importance despite times of economic
recession across
A study in The Lancet
last month showed how the economic crisis in Greece is already hitting the
health of that nation hard, with rates of suicide, HIV infection and illegal
drug use all rising.
Experts warned that other
European nations struggling with mounting debts and faltering growth should take
note of how recessions can harm health.
Thursday's ECDC report
also identified several emergent diseases in
There are indications
that the West Nile virus might have established itself in parts of south-east
Fri, Nov 11 2011
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
ATHENS
Take the mother of four
introduced to Reuters by her social worker at the bright offices of an
Bleached blonde hair
tightly pulled back in a bun, the 34-year old spoke on condition of anonymity.
When her two-year-old daughter was wheezy last October, she brought the child to
a state-run hospital. The doctors could not explain the baby's persistent fever.
One suggested an HIV test. The diagnosis for both mother and child was positive.
"I was devastated," she said.
She isn't the only one to
be shocked. In 2009, the year the baby was born,
"How was it possible
for an HIV-positive child to be born in
The health ministry did
not respond to phone calls seeking comment, and Reuters was unable to verify all
the elements of the woman's story. But others in the Greek capital say the
country's social safety net is fraying, nowhere more so than in the health
system. Spending by Greeks on health is falling 36 percent this year, according
to the National School of Public Health. Including both the government and
private individuals, the country spent around 25 billion euros, or roughly 10
percent of GDP, on both public and private health in 2010; in 2011 that will be
16 billion. Just 10 billion or so is government spending on the public health
sector.
The effect of that is
most visible on the edges of society. Heroin use and prostitution are up. Drug
addicts and illegal immigrants with HIV say clean needles, heroin substitutes
and antiretroviral treatments are harder to come by. The pace of HIV infection
is surging.
The latest available
United Nations figures, from 2009, show that 11,000 people, or 0.1 percent of
the Greek population, had HIV/AIDS, a third the rate in the
The problem in
"The HIV situation
in
HOLES IN THE SYSTEM
The Ukrainian mother said
she is not an injecting drug user and believes she got HIV through an operation
several years ago, though this was impossible to verify.
People in any society can
have HIV and not know it -- the United Nations believes around 250,000 in the
"It didn't even
occur to me that I would need one," said the mother, dressed in black
sweatpants and a camel-colored leather jacket. When and how she became infected
is not clear, but doctors say she probably passed the virus to her daughter
through breastfeeding. Women with HIV are told not to breastfeed as it
significantly increases the chance of passing on the virus.
The baby has a twin, a
boy, who along with the rest of the family has tested negative for HIV. Unlike
his sister, he did not take to breastfeeding.
The mother has separated
from her Greek husband in the last year, and now lives with her children in a
government-run shelter.
MORE SEEK TESTS
As the economic crisis
worsens, society is becoming gloomier. Greeks are swallowing 35 percent more
anti-depressants than they did five years ago, according to the National School
of Public Health. The health ministry says suicides are up 40 percent so far
this year. And if the lines of people at the Hellenic Center's mobile HIV
testing vans around Athens' poor quarters are anything to go by, more and more
Greeks are also worried about AIDS.
Wearing a stethoscope and
long white gown, doctor Evaggelos Liapis conducts tests every night between 6
and 10 pm on the corner of
"There are no clean
syringes around here and we have an increase in poverty and prostitution,
especially amongst the drug users," Liapis said as a heavily tattooed Greek
man in his twenties sat down in the van for a blood test.
The WHO recommends that
200 clean syringes are provided per drug user per year, to limit HIV infection.
Adding to the risk is the
fact that when times are tough, drug users are more likely to inject heroin
rather than snorting or smoking it, because they get a bigger hit for their
money by using a needle, according to French researchers. "Between 2007 and
2008, whilst gross salary growth rates were falling significantly, the
proportion of injecting drug users rose by 1.70 percent," wrote Christian
Ben Lakhdar, of the Catholic University of Lille, and Tanja Bastianic, of the
Yannis, a 34-year old
Greek addict, is among them. He said he used to inject heroin, then cleaned up
at a state-run rehab center just outside of
"Now they want me on
a detox program to prove my commitment to giving up drugs. Otherwise it can get
difficult to get my (HIV) drugs, even though I am Greek and have social
security," he said by telephone in Athens.
On paper, all Greeks who
make social security contributions should be granted HIV treatment, but Yannis
says doctors are becoming choosy over who gets them. And the treatment is
expensive.
CAN'T PAY FOR DRUGS
Budget cuts have
complicated
So far, there are no
signs that this has disrupted supplies of HIV medicine. But the cuts could have
a huge impact on the health system. "It is proven that the more money spent
on health, the lower the fatality (rate). Cuts in health will affect
lives," said epidemiologist Georgios Nikolopoulos, who tracks HIV rates at
the Hellenic Center.
Currently, antiretroviral
drugs cost Greece at least 1,000 euros per patient a month. For the state to pay
for all those people would cost just over 130 million euros a year. According to
Christianna Rizopoulos, who collects data at the Hellenic Center's HIV office,
there is talk among health professionals that the government plans to cut its
contribution for drugs to 600 euros per treatment per month, so patients would
have to foot almost half the bill. The health ministry did not answer calls
seeking comment.
"We are very
worried," said Rizopoulos. "With the economic crisis, there is no way
of knowing what will happen next."
"MAKES NO
SENSE"
Josephine, a 50-year old
HIV-positive illegal immigrant from Mozambique who also visits the Center for
Life, is among those on the edge.
She has been in Athens
since 2005, applied for asylum four years ago and says she is still waiting to
learn if her status will be approved. She has a limp caused by severe arthritis,
which HIV aggravates.
For the past six months,
she said, she has received zero antiretroviral medicine because she cannot find
work to pay social security contributions.
"This is also due to
the economy in Greece now. I used to get plenty of work before," she said,
her small black braids tucked under a red and white scarf. Last year she didn't
work at all. Since April this year, she has found sporadic cleaning jobs, but
hasn't paid her rent for seven months.
And Greece's preventative
programs are under heavy pressure. In September the health ministry ordered that
the seven mobile clinics that provide heroin replacement treatment around the
rundown areas of town be moved to 32 state-run hospitals across Athens.
The move was welcomed by
some health professionals, who said it would help improve the distribution of
staff and treatment. Others said it was unrealistic.
Staff for the Greek
Organization Against Drugs, OKANA, which provides the bulk of drug replacement
treatment and reintegration programs, joined an anti-austerity protest on
Syntagma Square last month. They said the cuts will make it harder to reach
drug-users.
"Countries like
Spain have the centers right where the problem is, here we have the
opposite," said Emi Koutsopoulou, an OKANA psychiatrist. "We now have
rehab and methadone points in really posh hospitals in wealthy suburbs. This
makes no sense. A drug user is not going to go out there."
(Additional reporting by
Ben Hirschler in London; Edited by Sara Ledwith and Simon Robinson)
(UKPA) – Nov 6, 2011
Gay men will now be able
to give blood as Government restrictions are officially lifted, the Department
of Health (DoH) said.
A lifetime ban on blood
donation by men who had had sex with another man was put in place in the
But following a review by
the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (Sabto), men
who have not had homosexual sex within a year will be able to donate if they
meet certain other criteria. The move will be implemented in
Men who have had anal or
oral sex with another man in the past 12 months, with or without a condom, will
still not be eligible to donate blood, the DoH said. They said this was to
reduce the risk of infections being missed by testing and then being passed on
to a patient.
Sabto's advisory panel,
comprising leading experts and patient groups, carried out its review based on
the latest available evidence and found it could no longer support the permanent
exclusion of men who have had sex with men.
They considered the risk
of infection being transmitted in blood, attitudes of potential donors in
complying with the selection criteria and improvements in testing of donated
blood.
Dr Lorna Williamson, NHS
Blood and Transplant's medical and research director, said: "Our priority
as a blood service is to provide a safe and sufficient supply of blood for
patients. This change gives us an opportunity to broaden our donor acceptance on
the basis of the latest scientific evidence.
"The Sabto review
concluded that the safety of the blood supply would not be affected by the
change and we would like to reassure patients receiving transfusions that the
blood supply is as safe as it reasonably can be and amongst the safest in the
world. There has been no documented transmission of a blood-borne virus in the
The change has been
welcomed by the sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust.
Chief executive Sir Nick
Partridge said: "We welcome this change, which is based on strong new
evidence that all the experts are agreed on. These regulations will ensure the
safety of blood supply for all of us while also being fair and equal in their
application."
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