ISV CAMPUS STAFF IN AUSTRALIA!

ISV Campus Staff are set to hit the shores of Australia to promote ISV's phenomenal volunteer and adventure programs!




Any past participants are invited to help our Campus Staff on their respective Universities to spread the good word of ISV to thousands of other students so they too can experience the trip of a lifetime!




The schedule for recruiting down under is as follows:




Week beginning March 16: Monash University - Caufield Campus


Week beginning March 23: University of Melbourne


Week beginning March 30: Monash University - Clayton


Week beginning April 6: Deakin - Burwood


Week beginning April 20: Latrobe - Bundoora


Week beginning April 27: Swinburne, Griffith - Mt Gravatt, JCU, Strathfield, UWS - Campbelltown, UWA - Bankstown, Southern Cross University


Week beginning May 4: University of Sydney, QUT, University of South Australia, Curtin University - Perth


Week beginning May 11: University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, Flinders University, Edith Cowan University


Week beginning May 18: Woolongong University, University of Canberra, University of Adelaide, Murdoch University


Week beginning May 25: Macquarie University, ANU (Canberra), UTAS - Hobart, University of Western Australia


Week beginning June 1: Newcastle, UTS, University of Ballarat, CSU - Bathurst, CSU - Albury, Wodonga - University of Southern Queensland

Did the Pan-American Health Organization Drop the Ball?

There has been widespread agreement that once the World Health Organization deemed the Swine Flu Influenza A(H1N1) an international public health emergency the WHO reacted in swift and responsible way. Procedures for handling international public health emergencies that were formed following the SARS outbreak in 2003 (the so-called International Health Regulations of 2005) seem to have worked as planned; there has been robust international cooperation for dealing with this threat and the WHO has risen to the challenge.

Still, one question unresolved is why there was an eight day gap between the time that Mexico first identified troubling patterns of flu and when these WHO emergency procedures kicked in. Public health experts with whom I have spoken initially suspected that the delay was caused by Mexican authorities who were slow to report their findings to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the WHO's regional headquarters in Washington, D.C. According to a report in the Associated Press, however, this is not so. Mexico's chief epidemiologist Dr. Miguel Angel Lezana tells the AP that he reported to PAHO about "alarming occurrences of flu and atypical pneumonia in Mexico" back on April 16. He claims that his messages to PAHO went unreturned.

When the dust settles questions about this eight day gap should be answered. Like I said, the WHO deserves praise for how it has handled Swine Flu Influenza A(H1N1) once an emergency was declared. Why it took so long to do so is something that the WHO and its member states will have to investigate.

Photo: PAHO's iconic headquarters in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.