Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

National biosecurity panel to hold closed-door meeting on bird flu research

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) is scheduled this week to hold "a closed-door meeting to once again look at unpublished manuscripts describing" two studies that showed how H5N1 bird flu virus could be manipulated to become transmissible among ferrets, a model for humans, NPR's health blog "Shots" reports, noting that the meeting "will include a classified briefing from the intelligence community."

27 Mar 2012

Improved clinical quality leads to decline in quality of patients' experiences

Hospitals that adopt strategies to reduce errors and meet government requirements face an initial tradeoff between improved clinical quality and a decline in the quality of individual patients' experiences, according to new research.

27 Mar 2012

Detailed CT scan can safely and quickly rule out possibility of heart attack

A highly detailed CT scan of the heart can safely and quickly rule out the possibility of a heart attack among many patients who come to hospital emergency rooms with chest pain, according to the results of a study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session and published concurrently in the New England Journal of Medicine.

27 Mar 2012

MedImmune receives FDA approval for FluMist Quadrivalent vaccine

FluMist Quadrivalent, a vaccine to prevent seasonal influenza in people ages 2 years through 49 years, has been approved today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FluMist Quadrivalent is the first influenza vaccine to contain four strains of the influenza virus, two influenza A strains and two influenza B strains.

27 Mar 2012

Hapten licenses HPT-721 to prevent poison ivy dermatitis

Hapten Sciences Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., has licensed a compound developed by ElSohly Laboratories Inc. and University of Mississippi pharmaceutical researchers to prevent reactions to poison ivy, oak and sumac.

27 Mar 2012

Novel interventional radiology procedure zaps around complicated pancreatic tumors

Results of a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., signal a light at the end of the tunnel for individuals with inoperable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). A new procedure called irreversible electroporation or IRE uses microsecond electrical pulses to force open and destroy tumor cells around a vast and delicate network of blood vessels of the pancreas.

27 Mar 2012

Mayo Clinic researchers join expedition to Everest

It's a natural laboratory for studying heart disease, lung problems, muscle loss, sleeping disorders and new medical technologies. It's also the highest mountain in the world. Mount Everest's extreme altitude puts climbers under the same conditions experienced by patients suffering from heart disease, obesity or advanced age. To take advantage of that, Mayo Clinic researchers are joining an expedition to Everest with National Geographic, The North Face and Montana State University.

26 Mar 2012

Gene fault linked to flu risk for hospitalization: Study finds

Researchers have found a genetic flaw that may explain why some people get more ill with flu than others. The study was reported in the journal Nature this Sunday, where researchers said the variant of the IFITM3 gene was much more common in people hospitalized for flu than in the general population. It controls a malformed protein, which makes cells more susceptible to viral infection. Experts said those with the flaw could be given the flu jab, like other at-risk groups.

26 Mar 2012

Valeant signs agreement to acquire Natur Produkt

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. announced today that Valeant has signed an agreement to acquire Natur Produkt International, JSC, a specialty pharmaceutical company in Russia.

26 Mar 2012

CSL Behring commences enrollment in SCIg PATH trial for CIDP

CSL Behring has announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the PATH study, an international clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of two different doses of subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg), compared with placebo, in maintenance treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

26 Mar 2012

USPTO issues patent to Inovio's SynCon H1N1 influenza vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. Patent No. 8,133,723, covering Inovio's SynCon universal vaccine related to H1N1 influenza.

26 Mar 2012

Researchers identify gene that influences how we respond to flu infection

A genetic finding could help explain why influenza becomes a life-threating disease to some people while it has only mild effects in others. New research led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has identified for the first time a human gene that influences how we respond to influenza infection.

26 Mar 2012

Allergy season comes early with high pollen counts

After the end of an unusually warm winter the spring has come early and this has affected asthmatics in parts of the South and Midwest this year. The 25 to 35 percent of people who suffer from hay fever, the early arrival of warm weather meant an unusually early start to allergy season due to the abundance of pollens.

25 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Ryan budget not a balanced diet; DEA war on pharmacies; The debate over Medicaid block grants

The mother of all tax expenditures - the tax-free treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance - amounts to $2 trillion over 10 years in lost income-tax revenue, not including the additional impact on payroll tax collections.

23 Mar 2012

The health law's second anniversary: Where do things stand?

As the sweeping overhaul turns two and the Supreme Court prepares to review its constitutionality, news outlets report on what provisions have taken effect, what changes are still in the pipeline and how people have been affected so far.

23 Mar 2012

UI receives three grants to hasten discovery of new TB therapeutics

Forty-five years. That's how long it's been since the last drug - rifampin - hit the market to treat tuberculosis, an infection that affects nearly one third of the world's population and causes 1.8 million deaths annually. The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has received three new federally-funded grants to hasten the discovery of new therapeutic treatments.

23 Mar 2012

U of S professor receives Canada Gairdner Wightman Award

University of Saskatchewan Professor Emeritus Lorne Babiuk has been awarded the prestigious Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in recognition of his accomplishments over three decades that include leading the U of S Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) to become a world centre for vaccine research, training and development.

22 Mar 2012

LSHTM professor receives Canada Gairdner Global Health Award

Sir Brian Greenwood, Manson Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has dedicated his career to saving children's lives by tackling malaria, meningitis and pneumonia - diseases which are dictated by the weather.

22 Mar 2012

Urban children more likely to be smokers

More than 75 percent of fourth-graders in urban and rural settings have measurable levels of a nicotine breakdown product in their saliva that documents their second-hand smoke exposure, researchers report.

22 Mar 2012

New genotype may be responsible for sharp rise in whooping cough

Australia's prolonged whooping cough epidemic has entered a disturbing new phase, with a study showing a new strain or genotype may be responsible for the sharp rise in the number of cases.

22 Mar 2012