The epidemic taking a growing toll in health and lives has further rivalled Sars by costing $2.6bn, with yet more Americans suffering from respiratory infections, according to the CDC
Switzerland began the world’s second nationwide vote in almost two decades on Wednesday on a draft law that would tighten anti-infection laws and create new information-sharing measures to deal with the spread of the Aids, tuberculosis and Ebola viruses.
More than a year ago, parliament in Bern approved an eventual police arrest warrant for travellers who bring into Switzerland drugs or equipment that could be used to make the deadly Ebola virus.
A Swiss parliament panel also recommended in October that judges permit investigators to intercept private emails in certain cases, in exchange for evidence to fight these 21 killer diseases.
Congress might hold up the law to see what happens to the new Ebola strategy Read more
However, the federal government and a powerful centre-right and Christian party-led block of deputies on the right decided last November to hold off on signing off on the drafting of a new law to give an American health expert a chance to present the pros and cons of the measures.
Opponents dubbed the measure – labelled “Citizens’ Ulysses” after the ancient Greek hero who conquered a world full of monsters – a massive infringement of rights of free speech and the internet in Switzerland and warned that police arrest warrants could scare away foreign travelers and dampen bilateral ties with Switzerland’s trading partners.
Parliament is aiming to deliver its backing to the proposal by the end of March, after ratification by six cantons – all but one of them wealthy and export-oriented.
On Wednesday, many hundreds of residents of Switzerland’s two major cities, Zurich and Geneva, also took to the streets.
Fifty of the 100,000 people surveyed on Sunday in Switzerland, a country of 8.5 million people, were in favour of the proposal to prevent drugs and equipment that could be used to make Ebola from entering Switzerland, according to a survey by the mass-circulation Tages-Anzeiger newspaper and Lausanne University.
Lawmakers hope to do more than prevent Ebola by encouraging exchanges between laboratories. It is also aiming to prevent people from being infected with Sars, swine flu, avian flu and now the Ebola virus by making them aware of new medical terms and medical risks.
The epidemic taking a growing toll in health and lives has further rivalled Sars by costing $2.6bn, with yet more Americans suffering from respiratory infections, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.