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.

October 1918 marks the centenary of Spanish Flu that claimed more lives than World War I

JUST as the cataclysmic conflict of the Great War was in its death throes, a new killer emerged that would, on a global scale, be even more lethal - the Spanish Flu pandemic, which was at its most virulent in October and November 1918.

24 Sep 2018

Old letters provide insight into Spanish flu pandemic horror

An archive of letters written by those who survived the Spanish flu pandemic at the start of the last century shows what it was actually like to live during that time. The Spanish flu pandemic killed over 250,000 people in Britain alone and worldwide it wiped out a population of over 100 million.

23 Sep 2018

Emergex signs MoU with Brazil’s Fiocruz for development of viral vaccines

Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to synthetic vaccine development in the field of infectious diseases, today announces that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil-based Oswaldo Cruz Foundation 'Fiocruz' for the development of viral vaccines.

20 Sep 2018

Health care companies' data could enable more accurate flu season forecasts

In an era when for-profit companies collect a wealth of data about us, new research from The University of Texas at Austin shows that data collected by health care companies could -- if made available to researchers and public health agencies -- enable more accurate forecasts of when the next flu season will peak, how long it will last and how many people will get sick.

20 Sep 2018

Human brains may be wired to prefer lying on the couch, suggests research

If getting to the gym seems like a struggle, a University of British Columbia researcher wants you to know this: the struggle is real, and it's happening inside your brain.

18 Sep 2018

Experts propose solutions to improve patient care for Parkinson's disease

Deaths associated with Parkinson's disease and related disorders increased substantially between 2001 and 2014.

10 Sep 2018

Study: Better infrastructure and governance associated with lower measures of antimicrobial resistance

An international team of researchers from CDDEP, Australian National University and Cardiff University and the Monarch Institute has published a new study showing that the proliferation of disease-causing antibiotic resistant organisms is correlated with many social and environmental factors such as poor sanitation, unsafe water and higher incomes.

7 Sep 2018

Researchers develop novel way for dating 'hibernating' HIV strains

Researchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Simon Fraser University, in partnership with University of British Columbia and Western University, have developed a novel way for dating "hibernating" HIV strains, in an advancement for HIV cure research in the province.

6 Sep 2018

Phase 1 clinical trial examining topical cream plus influenza vaccine is underway

A Phase 1 clinical trial examining whether a topical cream can enhance the immune response conferred by a "pre-pandemic" influenza vaccine is underway at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

6 Sep 2018

Airport security trays carry more microbes than toilet seats

A team of researchers from Finland and Britain have shown that over half of all the trays or security bins that the airport authorities use at the security clearance areas carry viruses that can cause respiratory infections.

6 Sep 2018

China withholding crucial bird flu virus samples outraging scientific community

The United States researchers and health experts have expressed outrage and concern over Chinese government’s policy to withhold the samples of the rapidly evolving bird flu virus H7N9.

29 Aug 2018

Spanish Flu viruses induce changes in master cellular regulator, shows research

The 1918 "Spanish Flu" was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, killing 50-100 million people.

22 Aug 2018

The man who sold America on vitamin D — and profited in the process

Dr. Michael Holick's enthusiasm for vitamin D can be fairly described as extreme.

20 Aug 2018

New modeling studies highlight urgent need for effective drug policy reforms to prevent HIV

While global incidence rates of HIV have declined notably in recent years, the virus that causes AIDS remains a major and, in some ways largely unmitigated, public health threat in some countries and regions.

17 Aug 2018

New polyclonal immunotherapy successfully neutralizes Ebola virus

SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that its anti-Ebola immunotherapy (SAB-139) provided "100% protection against a lethal dose of the Ebola virus" in a recent animal study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

15 Aug 2018

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia have higher risk of melanoma, shows study

While studying a large group of individuals with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a Wilmot Cancer Institute scientific team made an important discovery -- these patients had a sizable 600 percent higher risk of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

10 Aug 2018

World not ready to deal with a viral pandemic

A team of researchers from the John Hopkins Center for Health Security conducted a simulation with real life implications.

31 Jul 2018

Long-lasting HIV control without antiretroviral therapy is a feasible goal, says expert

Long-lasting control of HIV infection without antiretroviral therapy is a feasible goal that deserves vigorous pursuit, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., will assert during a lecture on Wednesday, July 25 at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

26 Jul 2018

Study calls for new gold standard in research to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

A new study by scientists from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel calls for a new gold standard in research to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, an obesity-linked chronic liver disease impacting millions of people of all ages worldwide, which can progress to liver cancer if untreated, creating a massive strain on an already overburdened healthcare system.

18 Jul 2018

Why men may recover more quickly from influenza infections than women

Men may recover more quickly from influenza infections because they produce more of a key lung-healing protein, a study from scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.

17 Jul 2018