Flu News and Research

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Hospitals, dirty hands and the risk of disease

Thousands of patients in hospitals each year are at risk of potentially fatal infections because health care workers do not wash their hands on enough occasions.

13 Jun 2006

New bird flu outbreak in China

Health authorities in China have revealed that a new outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus discovered in the western region of Xinjiang has been contained by the culling of more than 17,100 poultry.

12 Jun 2006

Idaho's first case of West Nile virus for 2006

West Nile virus was found in mosquitoes from Gem County on May 31, prompting health officials to remind people to 'Fight the Bite' of mosquitoes around their homes or when they are outdoors.

9 Jun 2006

Nventa granted European patent covering heat shock protein fusion to treat influenza

Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation announced that the European Patent Office has granted Patent Number EP 941,315 to Nventa.

8 Jun 2006

Have we got it right about bird flu?

Health officials in Indonesia must have breathed a sigh of relief at the the World Health Organisation's (WHO) news that bird flu has been ruled out in the cases of four Indonesian nurses who fell sick after caring for people infected with H5N1 virus.

8 Jun 2006

Glivec the best news yet for cancer victims

In what is great news for those suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), the drug Glivec looks like being one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer therapy for a years.

7 Jun 2006

Indonesia struggling to cope - quake survivors at greater risk of bird flu

Indonesia's devastating earthquake on 27 May, has so far taken the lives of over 6,000 people and injured 30,000 more.

6 Jun 2006

Migrating wild birds play a key role in transporting highly pathogenic avian influenza

Migrating wild birds have played and will likely continue to play a role in transporting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, or bird flu, over long distances.

5 Jun 2006

Indonesian bird flu death toll now up to 37

Confirmation by the World Health Organization that a 15-year-old boy who died in West Java, Indonesia last week, was the latest bird flu victim, takes Indonesia's confirmed deaths from the virus to 37.

4 Jun 2006

Siblings deaths may indicate another bird flu cluster in Indonesia

According to an Indonesian health ministry official, a 7-year-old Indonesian girl who died last week has tested positive for bird flu in local tests; the results have yet to be confirmed by a World Health Organisation-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong.

4 Jun 2006

Avian flu facts

Avian influenza (also called "bird flu") refers to the strains of the virus that infect birds. Bird flu can cause widespread illness and death among birds, though there are many different strains, which vary in strength.

1 Jun 2006

People with limited literacy skills have worse health outcomes

People aged 70 years and older with limited literacy skills are one and one half to two times as likely to have poor health and poor health care access as people with adequate or higher reading ability

31 May 2006

Promising new vaccine delivery approach

The field of vaccine development is getting a boost from new research that has identified a promising vaccine delivery approach, which in animal studies produced long-term immune protection after just one immunization.

31 May 2006

WHO bird flu situation update

Indonesian health authorities and WHO have further strengthened their response to the family cluster of cases in Kubu Simbelang village, Karo District, North Sumatra.

31 May 2006

Australia all set to tackle bird flu

Australia is one of only a few countries well prepared for an outbreak of bird flu in it's poultry population.

31 May 2006

What to do about bird flu

The latest deaths last week from bird flu in Indonesia have spread alarm across the globe that the world is on the brink of a pandemic.

30 May 2006

WHO ships Tamiflu to Indonesia just in case

A Hong Kong laboratory officially recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed the latest four cases of bird flu infection in humans in Indonesia.

29 May 2006

Bird flu doing the rounds, back again in China

According to official sources in China an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has been detected among wild birds in the remote far-western Qinghai province and in Tibet.

25 May 2006

WHO says Indonesian bird flu cluster does not show virus has mutated

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that despite the cluster of seven members from the same Indonesian family dying of bird flu this month, it does not signify that the virus has mutated and is being transmitted from human to human.

25 May 2006