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The Swiss government today is urging all citizens to begin stockpiling masks for use during a pandemic.
Swiss told to stock up on bird flu masks
The Federal Health Office has issued a list of personal hygiene guidelines for the Swiss population in the event of a bird flu pandemic among humans.
The main recommendation is for members of the public to stock up on 50 protective masks each, which are available in shops for a few francs.
The government said on Tuesday that the responsibility for being prepared for an outbreak was shared between the public and the authorities.
It said the authorities were responsible for vaccinations, other medicines and the general monitoring of the disease; the public were called on to follow measures that could limit the risk of infection and slow down the spread of a pandemic.
No order to wear masks would be given until after an actual outbreak, according to the Federal Health Office.
Additional personal hygiene recommendations : in the event of a pandemic : include the regular washing of hands with soap, using a tissue when coughing or sneezing which is then immediately thrown away, and avoiding handshakes.
Biggest global threat
A human bird flu pandemic is still the biggest global health threat, according to a senior Swiss official speaking on the eve of the 60th World Health Assembly.
Bird flu may not have made headlines recently but was set to top the bill at the ten:day session, which opened in Geneva on Monday.
"We still have an epidemic in birds, we still have regular transmission from birds to humans and that means the threat is still there," Gaudenz Silberschmidt, head of international affairs at the Federal Health Office, told swissinfo.
"We still don't know when there will be a mutation towards human:to:human transmission. [Pandemic] preparations have advanced but they still have to advance further in all countries."
Switzerland is due to start taking delivery early this summer of eight million doses of a pre:pandemic vaccine ? enough for the whole population ? made by British:American firm GlaxoSmithKline.
And the beat goes on . . .
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