Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

World Health Assembly opens amid concerns about flu pandemic

The 62nd World Health Assembly opened today in Geneva, as officials from 193 member countries began their annual review of the activities of the WHO and set new priorities for the future.

18 May 2009

Latest news on swine flu - 39 countries now affected

The latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO) # 31, says as of 17th May that 39 countries have now officially reported a total of 8,480 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

17 May 2009

Self-treatment lowers overall health care costs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder sufferers

Individuals suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) can experience significant savings in healthcare costs by employing a self-treatment program with the judicious use of medications, according to the results of a new study. The self-treatment program achieves these savings by reducing the duration of flare-ups.

17 May 2009

Influenza A(H1N1) update, 39 countries and 8480 cases

As of 06:00 GMT, 17 May 2009, 39 countries have officially reported 8480 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

17 May 2009

Early retroviral use best for AIDS patients with serious complications

HIV-positive patients who don't seek medical attention until they have a serious AIDS-related condition can reduce their risk of death or other complications by half if they get antiretroviral treatment early on, according to a new multicenter trial led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

17 May 2009

Early use of antiretroviral treatment improves survival rate of HIV patients

A clinical study, led by researchers from University College Dublin, Ireland, and Stanford University, California, USA, with international collaborators, demonstrates that mortality rates of HIV patients can be almost halved when early antiretroviral (ARV) therapy is added to the treatment of AIDS-related opportunistic infections (OIs) such as pneumonia, meningitis or other serious bacterial infections.

17 May 2009

House, Senate Committees approve bills that include influenza pandemic funds

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to approve a $91.3 billion defense and foreign aid spending bill that includes President Obama's request for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight a potential influenza pandemic, the AP/Winston-Salem Journal reports.

15 May 2009

Human nose temperature too cold for avian influenza

Avian influenza viruses do not thrive in humans because the temperature inside a person's nose is too low, according to research published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

15 May 2009

Australian scientist suggests Swine flu an accident in the lab

The suggestion by an Australian virologist that the new flu virus, H1N1 or swine flu, could have been the result of a laboratory accident has been dismissed by Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the deputy director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).

14 May 2009

Swine flu preoccupies world health leaders

It is expected that the upcoming World Health Organisation's (WHO) annual assembly will be dominated this year by the emergence and spread of the new influenza virus H1N1 (swine flu).

14 May 2009

Baylor Research Institute receives multi-million dollar grant to develop flu vaccine

Scientists at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) in Dallas, part of Baylor Research Institute (BRI) and the Baylor Health Care System, announced today that they received a renewal of a multi-million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to design new vaccines to prevent influenza - including swine flu (H1N1).

13 May 2009

Will the NHS continue to function in an influenza pandemic?

A survey of health care workers has revealed that as many as 85% may stay off work if an influenza pandemic did take hold of the country.

13 May 2009

Obama administration 'wants to go slow' on HIV/AIDS efforts, editorial says

"The road to ending AIDS comes with warning sign: Caution -- Politics Ahead. Just ask President Obama, who's getting a crash-course introduction," a San Francisco Chronicle editorial says.

13 May 2009

New mathematical model predicts immune response to influenza A virus

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a mathematical model to predict immune responses to infection with influenza A viruses, including novel viruses such as the emergent 2009 influenza A (H1N1). This model examines the contributions of specific sets of immune cells in fighting influenza A virus.

13 May 2009

Influenza pandemic planning needed to ensure that pregnant women and newborns receive priority treatment

Pregnant women and newborns are at greatest risk in a flu epidemic, but more planning must be done to ensure that they receive priority treatment should an outbreak occur, according to a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and University of Pittsburgh study.

13 May 2009

The latest news on swine flu

The latest update (# 26) from the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that as of the 12th of May 2009, 30 countries have officially reported 5,251 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.

13 May 2009

Bacteria create aquatic superbugs in waste treatment plants

For bacteria in wastewater treatment plants, the stars align perfectly to create a hedonistic mating ground for antibiotic-resistant superbugs eventually discharged into streams and lakes.

13 May 2009

Simple interventions could contain flu spread – focus on children

Although many have touted strategies from travel avoidance to Tamiflu to halt the spread of H1N1 flu or swine flu, a large body of evidence from the Cochrane Library suggests that concentrating on children's hygiene might be the best way to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses.

12 May 2009

A potentially better way to make flu virus vaccines

A team of Princeton University scientists may have found a better way to make a vaccine against the flu virus.

12 May 2009

Research looks at the human factor in spread of pandemic illness

Industrial engineers Sandra Garrett of Clemson University and Barrett Caldwell of Purdue University have proposed a new system to warn of an impending pandemic by monitoring signals in human behavior. The system could result in using a simple icon on a television screen to warn of future phases of an outbreak of an illness such as the flu

12 May 2009