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At least 541 records · Page 30Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Chromosomal polymorphism in natural populations of Drosophila subobscura near Zürich, Switzerland: a contribution to long-term comparisons.

The chromosomal inversion polymorphism in natural populations of D. subobscura was investigated near Zürich, Switzerland, in 1986 and 1987. These data are compared with earlier data from 1963, 1964 and 1984, collected in the same region. In all five acrocentric chromosomes, significant differences in the proportions of the dominant gene arrangements occurred; in the chromosomes A, I, O and U the standard order decreased from the sixties to the eighties, whereas the arrangements I1, O3+4, O3+4+8 and U1+2 became more frequent.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Hospice--a homecare service for terminally ill cancer patients in southern Switzerland.

We describe the circumstances that led to the building up of a home care service for terminally ill cancer patients in a part of southern Switzerland. We describe the goals, the structure and the functioning of this service as it works in two areas. We give some results of a retrospective study on hospitalization, home care and death at home.

Health Services Research↗
PubMed1992

Occupational exposure of truck drivers to dust and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons: a pilot study in Geneva, Switzerland.

The exposure to dust and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) of 15 truck drivers from Geneva, Switzerland, was measured. The drivers were divided between "long-distance" drivers and "local" drivers and between smokers and nonsmokers and were compared with a control group of 6 office workers who were also divided into smokers and nonsmokers. Dust was measured on 1 workday both by a direct-reading instrument and by sampling. The local drivers showed higher exposure to dust (0.3 mg/m3) and PAH than the long-distance drivers (0.1 mg/m3), who showed no difference with the control group. This observation may be due to the fact that the local drivers spend more time in more polluted areas, such as streets with heavy traffic and construction sites, than do the long-distance drivers. Smoking does not influence exposure to dust and PAH of professional truck drivers, as measured in this study, probably because the ventilation rate of the truck cabins is relatively high even during cold days (11-15 r/h). The distribution of dust concentrations was shown in some cases to be quite different from the expected log-normal distribution. The contribution of diesel exhaust to these exposures could not be estimated since no specific tracer was used. However, the relatively low level of dust exposure dose not support the hypothesis that present day levels of diesel exhaust particulates play a significant role in the excess occurrence of lung cancer observed in professional truck drivers.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed1989

Neuropathology of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS): a report of 135 consecutive autopsy cases from Switzerland.

Neuropathological changes were studied in a consecutive autopsy series of 135 cases, comprising 73% of all patients who died of AIDS in Switzerland between April 1981 and December 1987. Central nervous system involvement was found in 119 patients (88%), 19 of which had multiple concomitant intracerebral lesions. Among the non-viral opportunistic infections, encephalitis due to Toxoplasma gondii was most frequent and occurred in 35 patients (26%), followed by central nervous system infection with Cryptococcus neoformans, which was found in five patients (4%). Cytomegalovirus (CMV) encephalitis was present in 14 patients (10%). Disseminated microglial nodules without morphological or immunocytochemical evidence of CMV was encountered in 18 patients (13%). However, in all but two of these patients there was evidence of extracerebral CMV infection, suggesting that CMV was responsible for these nodular encephalitides. Nine patients (7%) had progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML); in five of these, demyelination was associated with extensive tissue destruction and cyst formation. HIV-associated encephalopathy was observed in 21 patients (16%) and showed two characteristic morphological patterns: progressive diffuse leukoencephalopathy (PDL) and multifocal giant cell encephalitis (MGCE). PDL was observed in 13 cases and characterized by diffuse pallor and gliosis of the cerebral and cerebellar white matter with scattered multinucleated giant cells, but without significant inflammatory response. MGCE was found in eight patients and characterized by clusters of numerous multinucleated giant cells, rod cells, macrophages, lymphocytic infiltrates and occasional necroses. In our view, PDL and MGCE represent the two opposite variants of HIV-induced encephalopathies, with overlapping intermediate manifestations.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

Primary immunodeficiencies in Switzerland: first report of the national registry in adults and children.

This first report of a Swiss registry includes 313 patients with primary immunodeficiency syndromes (PIDS) who were observed between January 1975 and January 1985. Diagnosis of specific PIDS was made according to WHO criteria. The most frequent disorders were IgA deficiency (33%) and common variable immunodeficiency (22%), followed by selective deficiency of other immunoglobulin isotypes (9%), severe combined immunodeficiency (9%), infantile sex-linked agammaglobulinemia (7%), and Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (6%). Frequencies of other types of PIDS varied between 0.3 and 4%. Half of the patients were in the pediatric age group. Male patients predominated (63%). In addition to respiratory and urogenital tract infections, autoimmune disorders were observed in 14 patients with IgA deficiency or common variable immunodeficiency. IgA deficiency was, furthermore, associated with atopic and neurological disorders. A comparison with other national registries revealed some differences: the frequency of severe combined immunodeficiency was high (incidence, 24.3 cases per 10(6) live births), and that of ataxia teleangiectasia was particularly low (1.4 per 10(6) live births) in Switzerland. Frequencies of the three major PIDS groups of (i) predominantly antibody defects, (ii) predominantly cell-mediated defects, and (iii) PIDS associated with other major defects agreed with those reported in the other European studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Rickettsia conorii isolated from Rhipicephalus sanguineus introduced into Switzerland on a pet dog.

A tick/rickettsial survey in a household near Geneva, Switzerland, revealed that 30 (40%) of 75 nymphs and adults of the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, were infected with a rickettsial agent biologically and antigenically indistinguishable from R. conorii, the causative agent of boutonneuse fever. Introduced in 1979 from either southern France or Italy by the family's pet dog, the tick infestation had steadily increased until 1981 when control measures were initiated. During 1980 and 1981, four persons associated with the household's pet dog contracted a febrile illness diagnosed as boutonneuse fever.

Agglutination Tests↗
PubMed1999

Switzerland: the status of silicosis from the past to the end of the 20th century. Control and prevention.

The silicosis issue in Switzerland is reviewed on the basis of data provided by Suva, the Swiss National Insurance Fund, in charge of law enforcement and of prevention. Pictures of the past period and nowadays consecutively to the occupational medicine surveillance and industrial hygiene practice showed that major improvements have been realized. In the 30's, a constant rise of new cases of silicosis has been observed every year. From 1940 to end of the 60's, a plateau was reached with about 200 to 300 cases per year. Since 1974, a significant decrease is observed, the annual number of new cases being about 100. Since 1989, the new cases level off at 30-50 per year due to drastic control measures and present announced cases are residuals of previous exposures. The number of annual deaths ranges at the unit level with a patient's life expectancy nearly equal to that of the general population. Prevention efforts however should be continued since the activities of concern have changed. Small enterprises with a limited number of personnel dispersed throughout the country, working in the sectors of stone cutting and grinding, civil engineering and cleaning of building surfaces make prevention difficult and may lower its efficiency. In addition, information should also reach categories of individual workers like professional pottery crafstmen or leisure-exposed persons.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Dynamics of the drug scene in Switzerland 1977-1990].

The registry of charges against users of illegal drugs in Switzerland is showing a steady increase from 1977 to 1990. Of course, the relation between the number of charges and the number of users is unknown and may vary in time and space. But it is shown here that the dependency of the data from the practice of the police can be circumvented with the help of a mathematical model and the distinction between first and subsequent charge. The least squares fit of the model to the data leads to an estimated time series of the number of illegal drug users that implies, with respect to 1977, the twofold in 1982 and the threefold in 1990.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1997

[Increasing use of heroine and cocaine in Switzerland since 1990: use of a generalized Poisson distribution in the collected data].

Estimates of the prevalence of deviant behaviour, which are based on the usual survey methods are by far too low. Therefore, the use of capture-recapture methods or of the truncated Poisson distribution is to be preferred, provided appropriate data are available. Here an extended Poisson approach was applied in order to estimate the number of users of hard illegal drugs (heroin, cocaine) in Switzerland for each year from 1990 to 1993. These estimates indicate an increase by about 50% during the period 1990-1993.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Development of a monitoring system for heroin-assisted substitution treatment in Switzerland.

OBJECTIVES: Switzerland introduced heroin-assisted treatment as a routine treatment for drug addicts. As a result the evaluation instruments were changed from a detailed scientific project to a routine monitoring system. The process for developing this monitoring system is described. METHODS: The questionnaires and assessment instruments were restyled with staff of the treatment agencies. Indicators measuring quality of treatment and measures from the future national statistic on the addiction support system were integrated into admission, course and discharge questionnaires. Currently a system for feedback to treatment agencies is being developed. RESULTS: All 21 treatment agencies are participating in the monitoring. Assessment quality is high. CONCLUSIONS: The described monitoring should provide continuous delivery of basic relevant data on patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Monitoring of the activities of low-threshold access structures for drug users in Switzerland: distribution of sterile injection equipment, results for 1993 and various cantonal examples].

In Switzerland numerous structures distribute or sell sterile injecting equipment for i.v. drug users, low threshold centres (LTC's) being the major provider. A national survey of these centres was initiated by the UEPP in january 1993, in the context of the global evaluation of the new set of the federal measures to reduce the problems related to illegal drug use. This article concentrates mainly on the results of the monitoring activity of the LTC's, which in 1993 distributed 7.1 millions syringes. This important offer is not, however, uniform across the different regions of the country. Some examples of regional variations are presented, as are fluctuations of demand in many LTC's. The observed variations can be correlated with season (increased demand in summer), but also with the development of LTC's (opening /closing down of centre, change in the structure, opening hours, etc.) and with external events (policy, increased pressure from police, etc.). This type of monitoring is useful not only for researchers in the field of drug addiction and prevention of HIV/AIDS, but also for decision makers and actors in the field of public health. The recommendations based on the first three years of this monitoring suggest that efforts to prevent sexual transmission of HIV among i.v. drug users should be reinforced as well as measures to supply sterile injecting equipment and condoms at low threshold level must be continued and further developed.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed2001

[Does the structure of medical services affect the proportion of death in hospitals? An ecological analysis in the mobility regions of Switzerland?].

OBJECTIVES: With the discussion about measures to reduce over-capacities in the health services in mind, we examined the influence of medical supply structures and services on hospital utilisation directly before death. METHODS: Based on the specification of the place of dying from the death certificates, we determined the proportions of deaths in hospitals in an ecological study. We analysed deaths of persons above age 65 in each of the 106 mobility regions of Switzerland in the years 1979 to 1980. RESULTS: The proportion of deaths occurring in hospitals varied between 27% and 81%. Despite missing data regarding stationary and ambulatory care services, more than half of the variance could be explained by means of a multivariate regression analysis. Our results imply an inverse relation between the proportion of deaths in the hospital and the number of consultations provided by primary care physicians, as well as the number of nursing home beds. Further, we observe a direct relation to the number of hospital beds in a region. All indicators are calculated per inhabitant. CONCLUSIONS: In health care supply planning, such systematic associations should be taken into account. We recommend to analyse regularly interregional differences in supply and outcome of medical performances with the best available data.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Trends in mortality from coronary heart and cerebrovascular disease in Switzerland, 1969-87.

Trends in age-specific and age-standardized death certification rates from all ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease in Switzerland have been analysed for the period 1969-87, i.e. since the introduction of the Eighth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases for coding causes of death. For coronary heart disease, overall age-standardized rates of males in the mid-late 1980's were similar to those in the late 1960's, although some upward trend was evident up to the mid 1970's (with a peak rate of 120.4/100,000, World standard, in 1978) followed by steady declines in more recent years (103.8/100,000 in 1987). These falls were larger in truncated (35 to 64 years) rates. For females, overall age-standardized rates were stable around a value of 40/100,000, while truncated rates tended to decrease, particularly over most recent years, with an overall decline of over 25%. Examination of age-specific trends showed that in both sexes declines at younger ages were already evident in the earlier calendar period, while above age 50 some fall became evident only in most recent years. Thus, in a formal log-linear age/period/cohort model, both a period and a cohort component emerged. In relation to cerebrovascular diseases, the overall declines were around 40% in males (from 67.4 to 41.2/100,000, World standard) and 45% for females (from 56.6 to 31.7/100,000), and were proportionally comparable across subsequent age groups above age 45. The estimates for the age/period/cohort model were thus downwards both for the period and the cohort component although, in such a situation, it is difficult to disentangle the major underlying component.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1998

[Health promotion in the basic education of teachers in Switzerland].

School is an extraordinary setting through which to practice health promotion. Obviously the preparation of future teachers to this task is of great importance. In Switzerland, there are some models of good practice and many enthusiastic fighters for health in the field of pre-service teacher training. Yet the results of a study at the swiss teacher training institutes show that about 30% of these institutions do not include health-issues in their curriculum. Furthermore, in those institutes including health-issues, the structural position of the person(s) encharged with this task is often weak and marginalized. The practical impact of the study is only partially satisfying: while the addressed authorities (Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education, Cantonal school authorities) have translated and published the results of the study and give them some weight by formulating their own recommendations, the constitution of a network of the persons encharged with health-issues in the teacher training institutions has failed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

[Consumption of calcium-rich food in the adult population of French-speaking Switzerland and of Tessin].

Food intake high in calcium content is important in the development of skeleton and the prevention of osteoporosis. From a public health perspective, it is therefore important to know the dietary calcium intake of a population. Two population surveys in the French and Italian parts of Switzerland (MONICA, 1988-1989, and Geneva, 1991), were combined to study nutritional habits related to calcium intake. A random population sample, aged 35 et 65 years, answered to a 24 hour recall questionnaire, either self-administered (MONICA, cantons of Vaud, Fribourg and Tessin, N = 2734) or by phone (canton of Geneva, N = 475). In the 4 cantons, for the previous day, 60% of participants ate dairy products, particularly whole milk and cheese. They drunk 3-4 dl/day of milk. A significant proportion (10%) of french and italian speaking Swiss did not consume any food high in calcium content. In Geneva, the mean daily calcium intake was 656 mg in men and 489 mg in women. In conclusion 1) eating habits related to calcium intake are similar across cantons; 2) women consume dairy products more frequently than men, but in smaller quantities; 3) about 60% of men and 80% of women do not get the daily amount of calcium recommended for the prevention of osteoporosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Components of total irradiation dose in Switzerland and their ranges.

The present knowledge about dose components in Switzerland and their ranges is reviewed. Considerable ranges are found for doses induced by radon decay-products and by cosmic and terrestrial radiation. Yearly doses from radon decay-products show average values between about 1 and 20 mSv in different communities and individual values up to about 150 mSv. The reliability of these average values is, however, limited, because radon concentrations have been measured up to now only in a small number of houses, and because corrections of the raw data are necessary, increasing the uncertainty of the results. Doses from terrestrial and cosmic radiation show locally variable values between about 0.5 and 1.5 mSv per year. These doses are mainly derived from outdoor measurements. Therefore, these results also are only of limited use in possible epidemiological applications.

Background Radiation↗
PubMed1991

The whole body incorporation of radioactive caesium in Switzerland during the last 30 years: a survey of young persons in Geneva and some measurements of Russian children.

In a cross-sectional study, each year at least twenty young men and twenty young girls about 18 years old were selected, and the body concentration of Cs-137 was measured in a whole body counter. This radioisotope, with a half-life of 30 years, originates from the atom bomb explosions in the atmosphere, which were stopped in 1963, or from the accident of Chernobyl. The concentrations due to the emissions from this reactor remained below one third of the values due to atomic bombs. The results in children from Byelorussia who spent a few weeks in Switzerland last summer are lower than what would have been expected according to the literature from Russia, but correspond to those recently obtained in situ by international scientific teams.

Adolescent↗