Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Data from Cempra's CEM-101 Phase 2 trial on CABP to be presented at ECCMID

Cempra Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing antibiotics to meet critical medical needs in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases,today announced that data will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), in London, March 31 to April 3,demonstrating CEM-101's (solithromycin's) efficacy to be comparable to levofloxacin in a Phase 2 trial of patients with community-acquired bacterial infections.

31 Mar 2012

Abbott receives CE Marking for PLEX-ID instrument and assays

Abbott announced today it has obtained CE Marking (Conformite Europeene) in the European Union to market its rapid, high-throughput PLEX-ID instrument, along with three assays for use on the system: PLEX-ID Viral IC Spectrum, PLEX-ID BAC Spectrum BC and PLEX-ID Flu.

31 Mar 2012

Differentiating between sneezing due to cold and allergies

One of the problems that parents may have during the springtime is deciphering whether their children's sneezing is due to a cold or allergies.

31 Mar 2012

Risk of botulism at California fish processing company

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a complaint filed by the Department of Justice, is seeking to stop the processing and distribution of fish products at a California company because of a risk of botulism and other food hazards.

30 Mar 2012

Needle-free vaccine shows promise against RSV in children

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are closing in on a needle-free vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a major cause of respiratory illness in children under two years of age.

30 Mar 2012

Ozone can trigger severe violent breathing attacks in many people

Ozone, the prevalent gas found in air pollution, and mostly experienced from March to October, can trigger severe violent breathing attacks in many people, particularly children and seniors, says a lung expert from Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston.

30 Mar 2012

Paying doctors and hospitals for better outcomes may not pay off

Medicare's largest effort to pay bonuses to hospitals that hit key performance measures -- or dock them if they miss -- did not lead to fewer deaths for heart attacks and heart bypass surgery, a new study finds. The analysis could lead to a reexamination of the idea of paying providers based on quality metrics, rather than on volume, which is key to the health law.

30 Mar 2012

Researchers, experts debate publication of H5N1 research amid updated studies

"As researchers from both sides of the debate over two controversial H5N1 studies weighed in Tuesday on full publication versus a more cautionary approach, two U.S. journals" -- the Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID) and its sister publication, Clinical Infectious Diseases -- "said they are developing policies to address any future such instances," CIDRAP News writes.

30 Mar 2012

Scientific research is crucial to preventing, controlling, eradicating infectious diseases

The debate about two studies showing that, with few genetic mutations, H5N1 bird flu strains could become more easily transmissible among ferrets, a laboratory model for humans, "has become a debate about the role of science in society.

30 Mar 2012

Avian and swine flu viruses hijack genetic regulators during human infection

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a number of tiny but powerful "genetic regulators" that are hijacked by avian and swine flu viruses during human infection.

29 Mar 2012

FDA extends review period for Almirall and Forest Labs' aclidinium bromide NDA

Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Almirall, S.A. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will require a three-month extension to complete its review of the data supporting the New Drug Application (NDA) for aclidinium bromide, a new long-acting antimuscarinic for the maintenance treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

29 Mar 2012

Hawthorn and Cypress settle Medicaid fraud lawsuit

Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its parent company, Cypress Pharmaceutical Inc., have paid the federal government and certain states a total of $2.8 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Phillips & Cohen LLP that alleged Hawthorn falsely marketed unapproved prescription drugs as being eligible for reimbursement by Medicaid and other government health care programs.

29 Mar 2012

Skeptical justices ask tough questions about the insurance mandate

In yesterday's oral arguments, the grilling aimed at the Obama administration's lawyer by the court's conservatives raised the prospect that the law's centerpiece could be overturned.

29 Mar 2012

Outside the court: Roaring rallies, rhetoric and reviews

The second day of the momentous Supreme Court hearing on President Obama's health law ended almost exactly at noon. By 12:03, many conservative lawmakers and television commentators who had been in the packed chambers stood on the marble steps outside, saying the health insurance mandate at the heart of the law appeared to be in deep trouble.

29 Mar 2012

Pernix fourth quarter net revenues increase 74% to $21.4 million

Pernix Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.

29 Mar 2012

Adjusting ventilator to keep breath size and lung pressures lower can reduce death from lung injury

Carefully adjusting mechanical ventilator settings in the intensive care unit to pump smaller breaths into very sick lungs can reduce the chances of dying by as much as 8 percent, according to a study by critical care experts at Johns Hopkins. Study participants were evaluated for two years after their acute lung injury.

28 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 28, 2012

Today's headlines recap yesterday's Supreme Court action related to the constitutionality of the individual mandate and set the scene for day 3 of the oral arguments, which will tackle issues of severalbility and questions about the health law's Medicaid expansion.

28 Mar 2012

North Shore-LIJ's first-ever walking challenge kicks off this week

The North Shore-LIJ Health System's first-ever walking challenge, the Walk to Paris, kicked off this week with 15,000 employees lacing up their sneakers to compete for a free trip to Paris. The fitness challenge is one of many initiatives that the 15-hospital health system has rolled out to improve the health and wellness of its employees.

28 Mar 2012

New microfluidic chip more effective in detecting flu outbreaks

The H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now Boston University researchers have developed a prototype of a rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises to provide clinicians with an effective tool to quickly diagnose both seasonal and pandemic strains of influenza, and thus limit the spread of infection.

28 Mar 2012

Telenurses provide effective advice

Seven out of eight people who sought advice from a telephone helpline staffed by nurses followed the self-care advice they received, ranging from providing treatment at home to calling an ambulance, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

27 Mar 2012