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.

Six new bird flu cases in Vietnam

Another six cases of bird flu have been reported in Vietnam, taking the total since December 2004 to 61. Of these 18 have died.

15 Jun 2005

Rimonabant study shows significant improvements in HbA1c and cardiometabolic risk factors in people with type 2 diabetes

The reported results of a one-year phase III study in 1045 people with type 2 diabetes treated with rimonabant, the first in a new class of therapeutic agents called selective CB1 Blockers, were that rimonabant 20 mg significantly improved HbA1c (a measure of blood sugar control), dyslipidemia (abnormal levels of fat in the blood), and systolic blood pressure with a concomitant substantial reduction in abdominal obesity in people with type 2 diabetes treated with oral anti-diabetic medications and requiring further control.

12 Jun 2005

AIDS expert says global strategy needed to combat feminization of HIV/AIDS

Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., a Johns Hopkins physician and scientist, who has spent the best part of the last 25 years leading major efforts to combat HIV and AIDS throughout the world, is calling for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic.

10 Jun 2005

Urgent call for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic

In an article appearing in the journal Science online June 10, Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at Hopkins and a senior investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, reports that women have in the last 20 years moved from those least affected by HIV to those in whom the disease is spreading fastest.

10 Jun 2005

UN warns of the losing battle in world AIDS fight

UN officials are saying that their goal of containing the AIDS pandemic by 2015 may now be unrealistic because the spread of the disease is outpacing the efforts of many countries to prevent it.

5 Jun 2005

Progress on HIV/AIDS significant but insufficient

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today shared his hope with a gathering of senior world officials at Headquarters that the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS would have heralded a response that matched the epidemic’s scale, yet progress had been “significant but insufficient”.

3 Jun 2005

Ranbaxy makes further three filings of its Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) formulations

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited has announced that the Company has made further three filings of its Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) formulations, to the World Health Organization (WHO) for its approval under the latter's pre-qualification project for HIV/AIDS drugs.

30 May 2005

China's bird flu vaccine already on trial amid forecasts of disaster

As scientists in the west warned of a possible global pandemic killing millions, China has apparently developed vaccines that block the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among birds and mammals.

26 May 2005

Scientists renew warnings over a bird flu pandemic

Scientists have again renewed their warnings about the potential global effect of a flu pandemic on health and economy.

26 May 2005

Vietnam reports another bird flu death

A death of a man from bird flu in Vietnam's Northern Province, has brought the total deaths in the country since late 2003 to 38.

23 May 2005

WHO says world must prepare for bird flu pandemic

Reports of disturbing changes to the H5N1 virus circulating in Asia is causing great concern and has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to urge countries to prepare for a influenza pandemic.

22 May 2005

WHO warns of threat of bird flu pandemic

A Vietnamese study which has shown that there are signs of greater human to human transmission of bird flu, has prompted the UN health agency to call on countries around the world to continue with their preparations for a threatened flu pandemic.

20 May 2005

Bird flu pandemic a real possibilty

According to the the World Health Organization (WHO), the pattern of human bird flu infections in Vietnam suggests the H5N1 virus that causes the illness is evolving in ways that makes it more contagious.

18 May 2005

World Health Assembly hears warning on avian influenza threat

The 58th World Health Assembly heard a warning from Dr. LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of the World Health Organization, on what he called the "most serious known health threat the world is facing today, which is avian influenza."

18 May 2005

Global epidemic of avian flu - Governments bury their heads

Governments around the world must stop burying their heads in the sand over the growing threat of a global epidemic of avian flu, argues a GP in this week's BMJ.

5 May 2005

Avian flu pandemic a very real threat

A new influenza pandemic is being seen by experts as the most significant global public health emergency caused by a naturally occurring pathogen.

2 May 2005

International coalition works to develop a cocktail of drugs to combat Malaria

As Africa marks its own Malaria Day in recognition of the fact that it bears 90% of the deadly disease’s burden, an international research coalition is working to develop a cocktail of drugs that overcomes increasing resistance to conventional treatment exhibited by the elusive parasite.

27 Apr 2005

Generex Biotechnology receives Australian patent for vaccine technology to fight cancer and pandemic influenza

Generex Biotechnology announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Antigen Express, has received Australian Patent No. 778115 titled "Hybrid Peptides Modulate the Immune Response." Antigen Express is designing and testing such vaccine peptides for the control of cancer and infectious diseases with a particular focus on the pandemic H5N1 influenza, which has been reported in South East Asia.

26 Apr 2005

Birdflu outbreak in Korea contained

Drastic action which has included the culling of nearly 220,000 infected chickens, the vaccination of others and strict biosecurity measures, has successfully contained the recent outbreak of bird flu in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

25 Apr 2005

UK plan for influenza pandemic

The HPA Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan outlines the Health Protection Agency’s plan for responding to an influenza pandemic. It replaces the Public Health Laboratory Service Pandemic Influenza Plan of July 2001.

23 Apr 2005