Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Link between British and Hungarian bird flu outbreaks now suspected

Scientists in Britain investigating the outbreak of bird flu in a flock of turkeys in Suffolk now say there may be a link with an outbreak in Hungary in January.

8 Feb 2007

Fighting influenza with 40,000 blood samples

Four million people die every year from respiratory diseases such as viral influenza. For elderly people in particular, an infection can be dangerous. What is more, the flu vaccine is not as effective with this risk group as it is with younger people.

7 Feb 2007

Second worker tested for bird flu on British farm

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the UK has announced that the vet who became ill after working on the farm where an outbreak of bird flu has occurred, has tested negative for the virus.

7 Feb 2007

ViroPharma receives orphan drug designation for Maribavir

ViroPharma Incorporated today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for maribavir for prevention of cytomegalovirus (CMV) viremia and disease in the populations at-risk.

7 Feb 2007

Worker involved in British bird flu outbreak undergoing tests for the virus

According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in Britain one of the workers who had been dealing with the bird flu outbreak in Suffolk in England has been admitted to hospital.

7 Feb 2007

Most of Medicare and Medicaid savings in Bush's budget proposal come from reducing growth in Medicare provider payments

The "lion's share" of the Medicare and Medicaid savings over five years proposed in President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget proposal comes from limits on annual inflation adjustments for reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers for Medicare, amounting to $39.5 billion, CQ HealthBeat reports.

7 Feb 2007

GlaxoSmithKline issues update on US patent litigation regarding Valtrex

GlaxoSmithKline has issued an update on US patent litigation regarding Valtrex (valacyclovir), an antiviral drug used for the treatment and suppression of genital herpes, herpes zoster (shingles), and cold sores.

5 Feb 2007

British experts baffled by bird flu outbreak

Although more than 150,000 turkeys have been slaughtered at a farm in Suffolk in England in order to curb the spread of the deadly bird flu virus, officials remain baffled as to the source of the outbreak.

5 Feb 2007

Hurricane style warning system will help U.S. cope with a bird flu pandemic

The plan is an early-warning ranking system similar to that deployed at times of hurricanes and is intended to protect and mobilize the country against a flu pandemic.

4 Feb 2007

Brits on high alert as bird flu kills thousands of turkeys

British health officials have confirmed that the avian flu virus which killed 2,600 turkeys at a farm in Lowestoft, Suffolk was indeed the H5N1 virus.

4 Feb 2007

Scientists change bird flu virus and stop it spreading

Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that just two small changes in the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic stopped it from jumping between mammals in the laboratory.

4 Feb 2007

Health effects of passive somking studied in first-of-a-kind clinical study

Until bans on in-flight smoking took effect, beginning in 1988, flight attendants were regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

1 Feb 2007

Indonesia comes up with bird flu vaccine

The head of Indonesia's national committee on avian influenza has announced that scientists there have developed a bird flu vaccine for humans.

1 Feb 2007

Different treatments may be needed for chronic asthma, depending on whether it results from allergies or lung infections

Researchers have now identified a particular gene that influences how severe a M. pneumoniae infection may be, which in turn suggests that a different strategy might be needed for treating asthma resulting from this and similar lung infections rather than allergies.

31 Jan 2007

Nigeria confirms avian influenza infection in woman from Lagos

The government of Nigeria has announced the death from suspected avian influenza infection in a 22-year-old female from Lagos. She died on 16 January 2007.

31 Jan 2007

World's largest particle physics accelerator tackles malaria

Malaria kills more than one million people each year, most of them young children living in Africa. Now physicists in the UK have shared their computers with biologists from countries including France and Korea in an effort to combat the disease.

31 Jan 2007

Molecular change in 1918 pandemic influenza virus stops transmission

Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that a molecular change in the 1918 pandemic influenza virus stops its transmission in ferrets that were in close proximity, shedding light on the properties that allowed the 1918 pandemic virus to spread so quickly.

31 Jan 2007

Rift Valley Fever threat puts Kenya on the verge of a national disaster

Kenya is facing a possible national disaster over an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF).

31 Jan 2007

Nventa Bio issued U.S patent for heat shock protein fusion to treat influenza

The patent provides coverage for compositions of fusion proteins comprised of an influenza antigen fused to a heat shock protein (Hsp), as well as DNA encoding such fusion proteins and their use in immunotherapy.

30 Jan 2007

Public reporting and pay for performance in hospital quality improvement

A Medicare pay-for-performance pilot project that rewards hospitals based on quality measures contributes to "modest" improvements in quality of care, according to a study published online Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports .

30 Jan 2007