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.

WHO has a go at China over new birdflu strain

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the new strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus currently circulating in China has shown no significant signs of mutation which would enable it to spread easily among people.

6 Nov 2006

Chinese lack of transparency could trigger bird flu pandemic

The transparency of health authorities in China has come under criticism yet again with the news of a new strain of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus which virologists say could be resistant to vaccines.

1 Nov 2006

Rogue bird flu resistant to vaccines

Researchers in Hong Kong and the U.S. say a new strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has emerged in China and what is more of a worry is the strain appears to be resistant to vaccines.

31 Oct 2006

HIV/AIDS and poverty in Zambia threatens economic growth

HIV/AIDS and poverty in Zambia "are threatening" economic growth the country has achieved since gaining its independence in 1964, President Levy Mwanawasa said last week in a speech on the eve of Zambia's 42nd anniversary of independence, Reuters reports.

30 Oct 2006

Trial involving medical workers accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV involves 'profound political issues'

The "scientific community, AIDS activists and Libyan government would do well to recognize ... the political and diplomatic import of the case" involving five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV, Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a PLoS Medicine opinion piece (Garrett, PLoS Medicine, 10/26).

30 Oct 2006

What will Americans do if bird flu strikes?

According to a recent poll most Americans would comply with government orders to avoid work, school or other public places in the event of a flu pandemic.

30 Oct 2006

In the case of an outbreak of pandemic flu, large majority of Americans willing to make major changes in their lives

The latest national survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Project on the Public and Biological Security finds that when faced with a serious outbreak of pandemic flu, a large majority of Americans are willing to make major changes in their lives and cooperate with public health officials' recommendations.

26 Oct 2006

Link between antiretrovirals, leprosy probable

Increased access to antiretroviral drugs in developing countries has revealed a "startling and worrisome side effect" by exposing "hidden leprosy infection" in some HIV-positive people receiving antiretrovirals, the New York Times reports.

24 Oct 2006

18 million children in Africa will have lost one or both parents to AIDS by 2010

More than 18 million children in Africa will have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illnesses by the end of 2010 without increased action to control the spread of the pandemic among young people on the continent, according to a UNICEF report released after a three-day HIV/AIDS conference in Dakar, Senegal, Reuters reports.

23 Oct 2006

Statement by Mike Leavitt on WHO global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply

The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a significant step forward in the global effort to prepare for an influenza pandemic by publishing the Global Pandemic Influenza Action Plan to Increase Vaccine Supply.

23 Oct 2006

Urgent action required to increase pandemic influenza vaccine supply

A set of activities identified in the World Health Organization's (WHO's) new Global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply requires immediate and sustained action and funding, if the world is to be prepared for an influenza pandemic to which there would be almost universal susceptibility.

23 Oct 2006

Swiss become the first to bulk buy pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine

Switzerland has apparently ordered enough of an experimental bird flu vaccine to inoculate it's entire population.

19 Oct 2006

Global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply

If an influenza pandemic were to occur in the near future, there would be a shortage of several billion doses of the pandemic influenza vaccine needed to protect the global population.

18 Oct 2006

Vaccine that protects mice against 1918 influenza virus developed

Federal scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against the killer 1918 influenza virus. They also have created a technique for identifying antibodies that neutralize this virus, a tool that could help contain future pandemic flu strains.

17 Oct 2006

HIV/AIDS pandemic and food shortages connected and must be addressed together

The HIV/AIDS pandemic and food shortages are connected and must be addressed together, according to panelists at a discussion on Monday at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., CQ HealthBeat reports.

17 Oct 2006

GPs crucial in coping with pandemic influenza outbreak

General practitioners would be crucial in avoiding large numbers of deaths in Australia as a result of a pandemic influenza outbreak, researchers at The Australian National University have shown.

16 Oct 2006

Updates on pandemic flu vaccine trials to be presented at 44th Annual IDSA meeting

Preliminary results from clinical trials testing two different pandemic flu vaccine approaches - one a prime-boost strategy using different subtypes of H5N1 vaccines, the other an H5N1 vaccine delivered into the skin (intradermal) rather than the muscle - will be presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

16 Oct 2006