Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Study finds reason for increased public resistance against vaccination

Why is it so challenging to increase the number of people who get vaccinated? How does popular resistance to vaccination remain strong even as preventable diseases make a comeback?

9 Jan 2019

New study uncovers potential risks posed to infants by mothers with influenza

Pregnant women with influenza are more likely to experience complications, but how this affects infants is unclear. A new Birth Defects Research study uncovers the potential risks to infants.

9 Jan 2019

Study shows safety of flu vaccination for hospitalized patients

Hospitalized patients who received the flu vaccine had no increased risk of outpatient visits or hospital readmission within seven days of discharge, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

8 Jan 2019

Study confirms increased pneumonia risk with prescription opioids

A study led by researchers at Yale University has shown that taking prescribed opioids increases the risk of pneumonia, irrespective of HIV status.

7 Jan 2019

High-tech planters for growing food in space

Fresh food is so attractive to astronauts that they toasted with salad when they were able to cultivate a few lettuce heads on the International Space Station three years ago.

5 Jan 2019

Medicaid patients in Puerto Rico don’t get coverage for drugs to cure hepatitis C

Drugs that can cure hepatitis C revolutionized care for millions of Americans living with the deadly liver infection. The drugs came with a steep price tag — one that prompted state Medicaid programs to initially limit access to the medications to only the sickest patients.

4 Jan 2019

MUSC researchers uncover a new cause for laryngeal symptoms

While a sudden coughing fit is a protective reflex to clear the airway, chronic cough can be caused by multiple factors that must be investigated to determine treatment. Cough is just one of several laryngeal symptoms including hoarseness and dysphoric breathing that can become debilitating.

4 Jan 2019

New technique using microneedles may mean rapid diagnoses of major illnesses

When people are in the early stages of an undiagnosed disease, immediate tests that lead to treatment are the best first steps. But a blood draw -- usually performed by a medical professional armed with an uncomfortably large needle -- might not be quickest, least painful or most effective method, according to new research.

3 Jan 2019

Researchers review applications, properties, and pharmacological potentials of rose hip

The genus Rosa from family Rosaceae is one of the most widespread species from the family. One species, rose hip, is known as a good source of different types of micronutrients and phytochemicals such as phenolic acids, tannins, and flavonoids. It is known as a traditional treatment in folk medicine.

28 Dec 2018

Reducing alcohol use could help quit daily smoking habit

If quitting smoking is one of your New Year's resolutions, you might want to consider cutting back on your drinking, too.

28 Dec 2018

Irish soil contains bacterial strains effective against antibiotic-resistant superbugs

Researchers analyzing soil from Ireland long thought to have medicinal properties have discovered that it contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria which is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA.

27 Dec 2018

Air pollutants trigger allergic cough in urban Indian population

Living in India and inhaling lungful of polluted air every day is like being a chronic smoker according to a recent report by India’s State-Level Disease Burden Initiative. This partly explains why many people in urban India have a persistent dry and hacking cough even if they don’t have asthma or have never smoked.

27 Dec 2018

Formula of 80 and precautions can help prevent heart attack during festive season

According to a new study, Christmas Eve is one of the most dangerous times of the year for the heart. It has indicated that a person’s risk for heart attack reaches its peak around late night a day before Christmas.

27 Dec 2018

Himalayan marmot genome offers clues to high-altitude adaptation

Himalayan marmots can survive at altitudes up to 5,000 meters in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, and Pakistan and on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, where many of them face extreme cold, little oxygen, and few other resources.

27 Dec 2018

Surfer's ear reveals important clues to lives of ancient pearl divers in Panama

While examining a skull from an ancient burial ground in a pre-Columbian village in Panama, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, bioarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), was surprised to discover an example of surfers' ear: a small, bony bump in the ear canal common among surfers, kayakers and free divers in cold climates.

24 Dec 2018

Implementation of HRRP program associated with increased mortality after discharge

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) was created under the Affordable Care Act and hospitals face financial penalties for higher-than-expected 30-day readmission rates for patients with heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia.

24 Dec 2018

Hospital readmission reduction program associated with increase in post-discharge mortality

A policy designed to reduce hospital readmissions through financial penalties was associated with a significant increase in post-discharge mortality for patients with heart failure and pneumonia, according to a large-scale study by researchers in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology.

21 Dec 2018

‘Don’t wash that bird!’ and other (often unheeded) food safety advice

Rinsing chicken or turkey before cooking it is an ingrained step for many home cooks — passed down through generations and reinforced by cookbooks. Recipes like the "Perfect Roast Chicken" in 1999's "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" advise cooks to "Rinse the chicken inside and out." But that doesn't reflect the science.

21 Dec 2018

Revolutionary ‘Heart in a Box’ transplantees hope for a bright future this Christmas

Last year two critically ill heart patients were facing an uncertain future, but this Christmas Scotland’s first revolutionary ‘Heart in a Box’ transplantees are looking forward with hope.

21 Dec 2018

New bacteria-based drug delivery system could radically expand cancer treatment options

An interdisciplinary team of three Virginia Tech faculty members affiliated with the Macromolecules Innovation Institute has created a drug delivery system that could radically expand cancer treatment options.

21 Dec 2018