Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Who gets bird flu vaccine first when there's not enough to go round?

According to the top health official in the U.S., it will be three to five years before the United States can produce enough bird flu vaccine to inoculate its population against a potentially deadly outbreak in humans.

21 Nov 2005

Indonesia has bird flu victim no.68

According to reports a 35-year-old man Indonesian is the latest suspected victim of the avian flu virus.

21 Nov 2005

Sweets may decrease the production of the stress-related hormone glucocorticoid

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found that eating or drinking sweets may decrease the production of the stress-related hormone glucocorticoid--which has been linked to obesity and decreased immune response.

20 Nov 2005

Bird flu early warning system to be set up by UN

According to a United Nations official an early warning bird flu system is to be set up to alert countries of incoming migratory birds which could be carrying the deadly virus.

20 Nov 2005

Bird flu scare in Canada

According to a Canadian health official test results on wild migratory ducks across Canada have not shown any link to the deadly Asian strain of the bird flu virus that has spread from Southeast Asia to Europe.

20 Nov 2005

Bird flu spreads in China while Bush's $ 7.1 billion pandemic fund stalls

As World health experts predicted there will be more human bird flu infections in China, the U.S. Congress has stalled the funding of President George W. Bush's plan to cope with a pandemic.

20 Nov 2005

Alarming deaths of Tamiflu patients - FDA to investigate

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating the deaths of 12 children in Japan who took Roche's flu-fighting drug Tamiflu.

20 Nov 2005

Six gene variants predict heart muscle damage after cardiac surgery

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that patients with six specific variants of genes involved in the body's immune response are significantly more likely to suffer damage of heart tissue after cardiac surgery.

16 Nov 2005

Human bird flu cases confirmed in China

According to official sources in China, at least one person has died from bird flu, confirming widespread suspicion that the deadly virus has now spread in people in another large Asian country where it might prove hard to contain.

16 Nov 2005

Battle on birdflu - Vietnam culls, China vaccinates, Indonesia ignores!

Vietnam has slaughtered thousands of birds in its two largest cities this week while other Asian nations have also upped their efforts to halt the spread of deadly avian flu.

15 Nov 2005

Vietnamese researchers say bird flu already resisant to Tamiflu

Scientists in Vietnam are concerned that the deadly bird flu may have infected two more people, and they suspect the virus may have mutated into a more dangerous form which could spread in mammals, and cause outbreaks in poultry.

15 Nov 2005

High alert as Taiwan finds highly pathogenic bird flu strain H7N3

According to officials in Taiwan they have found a highly pathogenic strain of avian flu, H7N3, in droppings left by a migratory bird.

14 Nov 2005

Teenage suicides and Tamiflu - is there a link?

Roche the maker of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu has reported to authorities in Japan the possible suicides of two teenage boys although the company says there was no clear evidence that the drug had contributed to their deaths.

14 Nov 2005

China checking another possible case of human bird flu

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), China is checking on a possible human case of bird flu in a northeastern province, the second part of the country to make such a precautionary diagnosis.

14 Nov 2005

Grandma was right all along, getting chilly can give you a cold

Welsh researchers have confirmed what your grandma always said was true that getting cold and chilly can give you a cold.

14 Nov 2005

New respiratory synctial virus treatment for at-risk infants under study

A new, enhanced-potency onoclonal antibody designed to keep the sniffles from turning into a devasting illness in at-risk babies is under study at the Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center.

14 Nov 2005

Why the bird flu virus H5N1 is so deadly to humans

A study published today in the open access journal Respiratory Research reveals that, in human cells, the virus can trigger levels of inflammatory proteins more than 10 times higher than the common human flu virus H1N1.

14 Nov 2005

Bangkok has first human case of bird flu

Health authorities in Thailand are investigating the first confirmed human infection from bird flu in Bangkok.

13 Nov 2005

Bird flu in China now up to 8 in one month

The Chinese government has reported its eighth outbreak of bird flu within a month which indicates the virus seems to be spreading.

13 Nov 2005

Bird flu in two Kuwait birds a far weaker strain

According to health officials in Kuwait two birds infected with avian flu have been destroyed, but it seems the strain of the virus present in the birds is weaker than the one which has killed more than 60 people in Asia.

13 Nov 2005