Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Chemoimmunotherapy versus chemotherapy for metastatic malignant melanoma

The addition of immunotherapy to chemotherapy for malignant skin cancer that has spread does not improve survival rates, researchers have found, and patients have more serious side effects, such as anemia, when the two treatments are combined.

1 Mar 2007

Further study of past flu pandemics key to future preparedness

Scientists and public health officials, wary that the H5N1 avian influenza virus could trigger an influenza pandemic, have looked to past pandemics, including the 1918 "Spanish Flu," for insight into pandemic planning.

28 Feb 2007

90 year old corpse may hold the answer to bird flu

Scientists in Britain believe a 90 year old corpse may hold the answer to the fight against bird flu.

28 Feb 2007

Bird flu vaccine offers limited protection but 'better than nothing'

Despite evidence it will not protect most people, a panel of health advisers have recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States approve the first vaccine against bird flu.

28 Feb 2007

AHF launches ad campaign against Bristol-Myers Squibb over antiretroviral pricing in Mexico

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation recently launched an advertisement campaign against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the price of the pharmaceutical company's antiretroviral drugs Reyataz and Videx in Mexico, the AP/Forbes reports.

28 Feb 2007

Lao People's Democratic Republic reports first human case of H5N1

The Ministry of Health in Lao People's Democratic Republic has today reported the first human case of infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

27 Feb 2007

Bird flu in Kuwait

Health officials in Kuwait have confirmed 20 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the small oil-rich state.

27 Feb 2007

Update on investigation of workers involved in the Holton avian flu outbreak

Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) has now completed the first stage of the public health follow up in relation to the outbreak of avian flu on a poultry farm in Holton, Suffolk.

27 Feb 2007

First 3-D structure from key influenza protein revealed

In 1918, 50 million people died during a worldwide influenza pandemic caused by mutation of a bird-specific strain of the influenza virus. Recently H5N1, another highly infectious avian strain has caused outbreaks of bird flu around the world.

27 Feb 2007

Stimuvax investigational lung cancer vaccine phase III study starts

Merck KGaA today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in its global Phase III clinical study, START (Stimulating Targeted Antigenic Responses To NSCLC), assessing the efficacy and safety of Stimuvax (BLP25 liposome vaccine) as a potential treatment for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

26 Feb 2007

New bird flu vaccine not such a sure bet

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S., in clinical trials the nation's first bird flu vaccine is not as effective as was initially expected.

26 Feb 2007

Exchange of E. coli between humans and chimps in Uganda

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have found that people employed in chimpanzee-focused research and tourism in a park in western Uganda are exchanging gastrointestinal bacteria - specifically Escherichia coli - with local chimpanzee populations. And some of the E. coli strains migrating to chimps are resistant to antibiotics used by humans in Uganda.

22 Feb 2007

Blueprint for influenza pandemic

The American Public Health Association (APHA) today released its blueprint for strengthening the nation's pandemic preparedness, amid persistent concerns about a potential influenza pandemic.

22 Feb 2007

Merck conducts trial of experimental HIV vaccine among sex workers in the Dominican Republic

The pharmaceutical company Merck is conducting Phase II clinical trials of its experimental HIV vaccine among 175 commercial sex workers in the Dominican Republic, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports.

21 Feb 2007

Experimental vector vaccine reduces stillbirths from cytomegalovirus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) - a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life.

21 Feb 2007

Entire genetic blueprints of more than 2,000 human and avian influenza viruses completed and made public

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), announced today that it has achieved a major milestone.

21 Feb 2007

More Moscow suburbs affected by bird flu

Russian officials say two more localities near Moscow have reported what appears to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu.

21 Feb 2007

Newborns with respiratory distress should be evaluated for primary ciliary dyskinesia

Reviewing published reports, Ferkol and Margaret Leigh, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), found that neonatal respiratory distress was a common clinical symptom of PCD, a chronic airway disease that affects about 1 in 15,000 children.

20 Feb 2007