Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Skin patch gives bird flu vaccine a big boost

Researchers testing an experimental skin patch designed to boost an H5N1 vaccine say preliminary results have been promising.

21 Mar 2008

UN gives stark warning about bird flu threat from Indonesia

Any danger that the world has become bored or complacent regarding the threat of bird flu will be dispelled by a stark warning from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

19 Mar 2008

Hong Kong on alert for both flu and bird flu

Hong Kong has suspended live poultry imports from the mainland following another outbreak of bird flu in the neighbouring region of Guangdong.

17 Mar 2008

Next emerging disease will come from tropics, say scientists

Scientists from four well-known institutions say the next major disease like HIV/AIDS or SARS could occur in any of a number of developing countries concentrated along the equator.

14 Mar 2008

A simulated pandemic influenza outbreak in Chicago

By using computer simulations and modeling, an international group of researchers including scientists from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech's Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL) have determined how a pandemic influenza outbreak might travel through a city similar in size to Chicago, Ill.

11 Mar 2008

Japanese find way to make flu vaccine effective for multiple strains

Japanese scientists say they are well on the way to developing influenza vaccines which are effective for multiple strains of the disease, including strains of the bird flu virus.

11 Mar 2008

Pandemic influenza could be mitigated if measures were implemented quickly

An outbreak of pandemic influenza in the U.S. could be mitigated with prompt implementation of social-distancing measures combined with antiviral treatment and prophylaxis until a vaccine is available, according to new findings published in the online Early Edition of PNAS.

10 Mar 2008

Research helps explain why some flu strains cause major pandemics and others lead to seasonal epidemics

The exchange of genetic material between two closely related strains of the influenza A virus may have caused the 1947 and 1951 human flu epidemics, according to biologists.

6 Mar 2008

Warning of psychiatric side effects with flu drug Tamiflu

Warnings are being issued concerning the drug Tamiflu by both the drug company Roche and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S.

5 Mar 2008

Stopping bird flu at the border

Several strains of the bird flu virus that raged across southern China were blocked from entering Thailand and Vietnam, UC Irvine researchers have discovered.

28 Feb 2008

Emerging-disease hotpsots mapped

An international research team has provided the first scientific evidence that deadly emerging diseases have risen steeply across the world, and has mapped the outbreaks' main sources.

21 Feb 2008

CDC report highlights progress and challenges in emergency disease preparedness

Improvements noted in disease detection, investigation, and laboratory response

21 Feb 2008

Bird flu strikes poultry in Tibet, man dies in Viet Nam

Chinese authorities have confirmed another bird flu outbreak in Tibet this year, the country's second in 2008.

20 Feb 2008

Winter in China brings another bird flu death

The man, Mr Li was from Jianghua County, Yongzhou City in central Hunan Province, he developed a fever and headache and was hospitalised on January 22nd, but despite treatment his symptoms worsened and he died at 5 p.m. on January 24th after all rescue attempts had failed.

18 Feb 2008