Tg Sanità, edition of 3 June 2024

There is talk of a pandemic treaty, meningitis, whooping cough, multiple sclerosis and fillers

PANDEMIC TREATY. SCHILLACI: STILL INSUFFICIENT PROGRESS

“We have actively followed the negotiations for the new pandemic treaty and all other issues discussed at the World Health Assembly. And we have done so in a constructive spirit, aiming to improve prevention, preparedness and global response to threats health care in the best possible way, but always within the borders and respecting the necessary national sovereignty”. The Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, said this while speaking last week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. “On the agreement for the pandemic treaty – the minister added – we do not see sufficient progress and there are still too many open critical points”.

AMMON (ECDC): FUNDS AND STAFF CUTS, FORGOTTEN COVID LESSON

“The lessons learned from the pandemic are no longer at the center of the agenda in the current political debate. I see this happening in many European Union Member States. For example, at national level, many colleagues report that the additional resources obtained during the pandemic they were withdrawn. They even had to reduce staff.” This was stated in an interview published in the newspaper ‘TrendSanità’ by Andrea Ammon, outgoing director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, where she will be replaced by Pamela Rendi-Wagner for the next 5 years. “Especially in the last two and a half years – added Ammon – we have witnessed the desire to spend more on defense, energy and climate change. There are so many other demands weighing on the national budgets of Member States, that the health is moving down the priority list.”

WARNING FOR WHOOPING COUGH IN NEWBORNS. SIP: 3 DEATHS AND HOSPITALIZATIONS IN 4 MONTHS

A +800% Three newborns have died since the beginning of the year and an 800% increase in hospitalizations of the youngest compared to 2023. After the alarm launched by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which highlighted almost 60 thousand cases of whooping cough across Europe during 2023 and until April 2024, recording an increase of more than 10 times compared to the years 2022 and 2021, the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip) also launches an alert for the epidemic of whooping cough, particularly widespread among newborns and unvaccinated infants. “We can protect this particularly vulnerable population through the immunization of the mother, during the second and third trimester of pregnancy – says the president of Sip, Annamaria Staiano – highly safe and effective in protecting children who are still too young to be vaccinated”.

23-YEAR-OLD STUDENT KILLED IN THREE DAYS BY FULMINANT MENINGITIS

She was in Berlin for Erasmus, but she went “from life to death in the space of just three days”. Lara Ponticiello, a 23-year-old student from Gonzaga, in the province of Mantua, was the victim of a fulminant meningitis that left her with no escape. “Meningitis – infectious disease specialist Matteo Bassetti explained on social media – is a serious infection that affects the brain and can lead to death, even within a few hours. It can be caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. The viral form is more common and less serious, while bacterial one can have much more serious consequences.” Among the bacteria that most frequently cause bacterial meningitis are Pneumococcus, Meningococcus and Haemophilus. “The most serious and fulminant forms of meningitis – added the expert – are generally linked to meningococcus belonging to both group B and A, C, Y, W135”.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. FISM: 3,600 PEOPLE AFFECTED IN ITALY EVERY YEAR, MORE RESEARCH

“Research on multiple sclerosis produces tangible results that have changed the lives of those affected. But more can and must be done for a pathology that affects 3,600 people every year in Italy alone. Starting with prevention and from the diagnosis”. These are the themes at the center of the annual congress of Fism, the Foundation of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association, which took place last week in Rome. “We need research that produces concrete impacts on the lives of people with MS – said Aism vice-president Rachele Michelacci – and the arrival of new diagnostic criteria, which promise to improve people’s prognosis and quality of life, responds fully to our Bill of Rights”.

FILLERS. SIME: STOP FREE SALE IN PHARMACY, ‘DIY’ IS RISKY

Retouching, accessible to everyone, even minors, is “very dangerous”. Against the craze for fillers, syringes with hyaluronic acid inside, which can now be purchased in pharmacies, and also from online sales channels, without a medical prescription, Emanuele Bartoletti, president of the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine (Sime), issues a harsh warning. “Pharmacies are authorized to sell fillers to doctors, but unfortunately also to patients – he explained in an interview given to Dire – Online any person, as long as they have a PayPal account, can buy fillers. And this is very dangerous. fillers should only be sold to doctors and specialists, because otherwise – concluded Bartoletti – the damage caused can be dramatic”.