Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) has published a warning not to eat certain norovirus infected shellfish sold in Switzerland. The products listed below have now been removed from shop shelves according to the FSVO, however some people will have bought them before they were withdrawn. The norovirus causes diarrhoea and vomiting. The […]
Swisscom achieves 90 percent 5G coverage, despite public resistance
Swisscom, Switzerland’s largest mobile operator, announced that it has achieved its plan to reach 90% of Switzerland’s population with 5G signals by the end of 2019. The installed infrastructure will allow it to deliver a basic service, which will be slower than the final version but still 1,000 times more effective than 4G. The first […]
Swiss visit doctor less often than most of Europe
In 2017, an average Swiss resident visited a medical professional 4.32 times, according to data recently published by Eurostat. Only residents of Denmark (4.30), Sweden (2.77) and Cyprus (2.09) went to see a doctor less often. The average number of visits across those European countries with 2017 data was 6.84. Countries with the highest frequency […]
Swiss government rejects anti-tobacco advertising initiative
Tobacco is big business. The industry is expected to generate almost US$ 700 billion globally by 2021. This scale makes the industry a formidable foe for those hoping to spare people the damaging health effects of tobacco addiction. In 2018, a group in Switzerland launched an initiative to ban tobacco advertising targeted at young people. […]
Switzerland bans toxic pesticides used since 1960s
Today, Switzerland’s Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) announced it is withdrawing, with immediate effect, the authorisation to sell products containing the chemical chlorothalonil, an ingredient used since the 1960s to protect crops from disease. The decision follows a reexamination of the toxic effects of the chemical over the summer. FOAG said that after examining data […]
1 in 10 Swiss hospitals face financial difficulty
Around one hospital in ten in Switzerland could end up in financial difficultly, according to a report by PWC. In addition, 37 of the 44 hospitals surveyed will not be profitable enough to remain competitive over the next five to ten years, predict the authors of the report. The shift towards more outpatient care instead […]
Antibiotic resistance – Swiss researchers make a breakthrough
Some life-threatening bacteria are becoming resistant to existing antibiotics. Swiss researchers at the University of Zurich recently discovered a new class of antibiotics that is able to attack a particularly treatment-resistant class of bacteria known as Gram-negative bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria have an extra outer membrane, which makes them hard to attack. This protective outer layer […]
Nowhere is safer than Switzerland
For 2020, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic are the riskiest countries to visit, according to International SOS, a health and security company. The ranking, which considers medical risk, travel security and road safety, lists Switzerland as the safest nation, alongside Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Andorra. These countries, […]
Drug spending continues to explode in Switzerland
Last week, the government announced that it had shaved CHF 100 million off the cost of drug purchases from 1 January 2020. This week numbers obtained by RTS from Curafutura, a health insurance association, show drug spending rose CHF 420 million from CHF 6.9 billion to CHF 7 billion between October 2018 and September 2019 […]
Swiss government cuts drug prices by 100 million francs
Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) recently announced it had reduced the price Swiss healthcare providers and patients will pay for 257 drugs by 16.3%. These lower prices, which take affect on 1 December 2019, are expected to save CHF 100 million annually. The FOPH looked at the prices of 478 drugs and achieved […]
