Epidemic News Archives

U.S. health officials said on Wednesday they are seeing a worrying pattern of serious bacterial infections in swine flu patients, mostly among younger adults not normally vulnerable to them.

The number of H1N1 flu cases is "levelling off"in some parts of the country, but the peak of the second wave of the pandemic has not been reached yet and Canadians should not become complacent, federal officials said Wednesday.

The investigation into whether a batch of H1N1 vaccine may have triggered a higher-than-normal rate of allergic reactions hasn't yet come up with answers, vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline said Tuesday.

The world's largest annual religious pilgrimagebegan, overshadowed by the swine flu pandemic as 2.5 million Muslims ammassed at the holy city of Mecca for the hajj.

China has detected eight cases of swine flu mutation, a health official said Wednesday, amid longstanding concerns among scientists that the virus could change into a more dangerous form.

The community-associated strain of the deadly superbug MRSA -- an infection-causing bacteria resistant to most common antibiotics -- poses a far greater health threat than previously known and is making its way into hospitals, according to a study in the December issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases .

Swiss pharmaceuticals maker Novartis AG is opening the doors today at its first U.S. plant to produce flu vaccines using cell cultures instead of egg-based methods.

Let us give thanks - and pass the Purell. Your family might be sharing more than turkey and pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving.

The World Health Organization is looking into reports in Britain and the United States that the H1N1 flu may have developed resistance to Tamiflu in people with severely suppressed immune systems, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Officials say the global epidemic probably peaked in 1996 and that the disease looks stable in most regions, except for Africa.

Via the Washington Post : In Ukraine, much panic and politicking over H1N1 virus .

A Dutch baby is distracted yesterday while receiving a shot of the A flu vaccine in the Rai congress hall in Amsterdam The number of H1N1 flu deaths in Europe has doubled almost every two weeks since the middle of October and 169 people died of the virus in the past week, disease surveillance experts said yesterday.

Some areas of the United States are seeing declines in H1N1 swine flu activity, a federal health official said Friday, and while the disease remains widespread in 43 states, that's down from the 46 states reported last week.

Santa Claus should avoid kissing children and shaking their hands to prevent spreading the flu and should get vaccinated against the illness, Hungary's state health authority said.

As U.S. health officials struggle to vaccinate tens of millions of Americans against the pandemic of swine flu, some are looking regretfully at one easy way to instantly double or triple the number of doses available -- by using an immune booster called an adjuvant.

JOHANNESBURG, 21 November 2009 - South Africans are dying younger and in greater numbers, and HIV/AIDS is to blame, according to a report released this week by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

GENEVA a ' Nearly 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.

A 23-year-old University of Virginia graduate who created a nonprofit group to help tackle the AIDS epidemic in Washington has been named a Rhodes Scholar.

UNICEF releases "The state of the world's children" report 20.11.2009 12:42:58 A special edition issue of UNICEF's flagship "The State of the World's Children" report, tracking the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the challenges that remain, was released on 19 November on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Convention's ...

More than one million antiviral doses have been drawn from the federal stockpile in recent months, and the number of prescriptions filled by Canadian retail drugstores for Tamiflu and Relenza, the ... As public health officials urge more rapid use of antivirals for H1N1, some experts worry the drugs could become over-prescribed for what is a ...

In the first week of November 1918, the headlines were all about the collapse of the German lines after four years of exhausting, ghastly World War.

Amparo Martinez, left, watches as her daughter, Sorayo Martinez, 4, is given a dose of swine flu vaccine in Oregon City, Ore.

Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company, announced that it has expanded its Phase 2 clinical study of a proprietary investigational triple-combination antiviral drug therapy for influenza to include centers in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Swine flu vaccines are still effective despite reported cases of mutations in the A virus, health experts in Europe and North America said Saturday.

Swine flu: Is the worst behind us? Nov. 20: New numbers on reported swine flu cases show the epidemic may have reached its peak in the U.S. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.

HIV/AIDS program grants made by U.S.-based foundations totaled $618 billion in 2008, an 11 percent increase from the previous year, according to a new report by Funders Concerned About AIDS, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Inovio Biomedical Corporation , a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that a combination of its synthetic consensus H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against several different influenza sub-types and strains in ferrets.

The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere, global health officials said on Friday, but they cautioned it was far from over.

A 75 year-old man from the Topeka metropolitan area has died from the H1N1 influenza virus, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Friday.

Four North Carolina patients at a single hospital tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, health officials said Friday.

The World Health Organization said Friday it is investigating samples of variant swine flu linked to two deaths and one severe case in Norway, but that so far the significance of the mutation is unclear.

Vaccine makers praised the U.S. response to the swine flu pandemic on Wednesday but said regulatory delays and public suspicion have held up innovative ways to speed and stretch the U.S. influenza vaccine supply.

Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police.

The World Health Organization on Thursday reemphasized the safety of A/H1N1 flu vaccine, saying a small number of deaths that occurred after vaccination were actually not caused by the vaccine itself.

Alberta's auditor general will examine the province's swine flu vaccination program over the next few months to see if the plan was properly implemented and clearly communicated.

"Reporting so far reconfirms that the pandemic flu vaccine is as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine," says WHO vaccine expert Dr.

Bird flu viruses would have to make at least two simultaneous genetic mutations before they could be transmitted readily from human to human, according to research published today in PLoS ONE.

Despite initially declaring success, Beijing now acknowledges its swine flu outbreak is much larger than official numbers show.

The UK could suffer a shortage of intensive care beds for children with swine flu, researchers have said.

The death of a 4-month-old girl in San Diego County has been linked to the swine flu pandemic, health officials announced Wednesday.

Minnesota health officials are reporting five new deaths from swine Flu as the pandemic wanes.

Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:59am EST - A girl wearing a face mask takes a photograph along Whitehall in London, July 30, 2009.

If current obesity trends continue, more than 40 percent of adults in the United states will be obese and spending on the epidemic will quadruple to $344 billion by 2018, according to a new study released Tuesday.

Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia -- the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a rhinovirus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors said on Tuesday.

'Sisters in Spirit Vigil' marched through downtown Regina for missing First Nations women on Sunday as part of the third annual Aboriginal HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C Conference.

Nov. 16, 2009 -- As the number of deaths related to the pandemic H1N1 virus, commonly known as "swine flu," continues to rise, researchers have been scrambling to decipher its inner workings and explain why the incidence is lower than expected in older adults.

Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. Genital herpes. Urinary tract infections.

People who have had repeated flu infections -- or repeated flu vaccines -- may have some protection against the new pandemic swine influenza, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The researchers linked many powerful computer systems together to analyze enormous amounts of genetic data collected from all publicly available isolated strains of the H5N1 virus -- the cause of avian flu.

With the global H1N1 flu pandemic showing no sign of abating, Walt Disney World has stepped up efforts to prevent swine flu and other viruses from spreading within its theme parks.

Despite the recent surge in H1N1 deaths, the nation's chief public health officer says the pandemic virus appears no deadlier than regular seasonal influenza and that there could actually be substantially fewer flu deaths than normal this season.

In Ukraine, swine flu is causing electoral fever. In a hard-fought presidential campaign, critics of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accuse her of stirring up panic to grab the spotlight from rivals by closing all schools and banning mass gatherings to combat what experts say is a relatively moderate outbreak of the disease.

Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:59am EST -Registered nurse Susan Longobucco-Hynes prepares a dose of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine for patients at an Asthma fair at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts November 14, 2009.

When Robin Webb lived in New York City, he was treated by HIV specialists and had access to counseling and nutritional programs.

Eight-year-old Eve Lemoine her H1N1 flu shot from public health nurse Karen Baily in Regina on Nov 13, 2009.

Are you confused by the H1N1 numbers? Wondering why public health officials are making such a fuss about a virus that has so far killed so few people? You aren't alone.

Students at a high school receive vaccine injections against H1N1 Swine Flu in Shenyang, northeast China, November 12, 2009.

Lyster Army Health Clinic is located at Fort Rucker in Alabama. The clinic provides primary care and ancillary services to a military population that consists of active duty service members, their families, a large retiree population and their family members.

Despite constant reassurances from federal officials that Canada's vaccination program is on track, only about one-third of Canadians feel the country is well-prepared to deal with the H1N1 pandemic.

Estimates of deaths caused by the swine flu have grown to nearly 4,000 since April, roughly quadrupling previous estimates.

Main Category: Swine Flu Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS ; Immune System / Vaccines ; Pediatrics / Children's Health Article Date: 12 Nov 2009 - 15:00 PST CSL Biotherapies, a subsidiary of CSL Limited , one of the world's leading manufacturers of influenza vaccine, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the company's ...

Ottawa Public Health has temporarily shutdown the H1N1 mass vaccination clinics after running out of the doses.

When patients began arriving in Vyacheslav Bonder's intensive care unit two weeks ago, their lungs so saturated with blood that they could barely gasp, the only thing he could compare it to was a field hospital in wartime.

More than 6,250 people have died in the swine flu pandemic, World Health Organisation data showed Friday, as the global death rate appeared to slow.

Nearly half of all American workers do not have paid sick leave, and half of these are more likely to go to work feeling unwell or send an ill child to school rather than take an unpaid day off.

Home : Health : B.C. hopeful H1N1 virus has peaked there B.C. hopeful H1N1 virus has peaked there Date: Friday Nov.

CDC: H1N1 Sickened 22 Million, Killed 4,000 Share + Comments Nov 12, 2009 5:41 pm US/Eastern CDC: H1N1 Sickened 22 Million, Killed 4,000 WASHINGTON Government health officials say swine flu has sickened about 22 million Americans since April.

More than 6,200 people worldwide have now died from swine flu, the World Health Organisation said.

Belgrade's open-air markets were a welter of busy customers on Friday, pushing and shoving to buy one item - garlic.

Indianapolis - Indiana health officials reported a recent drop in the number of people hospitalized with flu symptoms, but warned Thursday that the decrease does not necessarily mean the H1N1 flu pandemic is waning.

Diabetes affects more than 24 million Americans and is linked to killing more than 200,000 of them each year.

Like most people, I've been following the news about the H1N1 swine flu with some concern.

A 48-year-old woman from the Topeka metropolitan area has died from infection with the H1N1 influenza virus, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced today.

An important, ground-breaking initiative is unfolding in the global critical care community in response to the H1N1 pandemic.

Few farmers in this southern Chinese village gave much thought to the swine flu epidemic that had begun spreading rapidly in the United States early this summer until police sealed its 100 residents off from the outside world for about a week.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay : A swine flu vaccine made by British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline is now approved for use in the United States.

Doctors should be cautious about giving Tamiflu to people to prevent them from becoming ill after they've been exposed to H1N1, an antiviral expert said Wednesday as he reported details of North America's first reported case of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 viruses.

Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu - about four times the estimate they've been using.

The H1N1 vaccination priority list has been expanded to include police and firefighters, flu pandemic leadership and lab workers, jail guards and people over the age of 65 living in long-term care homes.

Serbia's health ministry on Wednesday proclaimed a swine flu epidemic, a declaration it hopes will help prevent a surge of the illness in the Balkan country.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang gets to know the examining conditions of A/H1N1 flu vaccine during an inspection of the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products in Beijing, capital of China, on Nov.

Reporting from Washington - Against the backdrop of the H1N1 flu pandemic, congressional Democrats are pushing for emergency sick-leave legislation and using the crisis to garner support for a wider-ranging bill -- both of which, they say, would help prevent a more rapid spread of the virus by mandating that employers provide workers with paid time ...

The World Health Organization's top flu scientist often describes the virus he's studied for years as "humbling." FILE--U.S. World Health Organization Assistant Director Keiji Fukuda attends a conference on swine flu in Cancun, Mexico, Friday, July 3, 2009.

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Americans infected by the H1N1 flu virus would be guaranteed paid sick leave under emergency legislation U.S. Senator Chris Dodd plans to unveil on Tuesday in response to the swine flu pandemic.

Home : Top Stories : Canada can't spare H1N1 vaccine for Afghanistan: ambassador Canada can't spare H1N1 vaccine for Afghanistan: ambassador Date: Monday Nov.

Health officials in North Carolina say two pregnant women were among five people who died of pandemic H1N1 flu or similar symptoms in one week.

KATHMANDU: Hundreds of people flocked to hospitals for tests with swine flu like symptoms while public schools were shut down for three days in a third district in western Nepal after fears of an epidemic loomed large in the region following detection of the virus in school students and security forces.

Can cheap and readily available treatments like steroids and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs help save the sickest of H1N1 patients? New efforts by researchers in Canada, the United States and France could help answer this pressing question.

As delivery of H1N1 vaccine to the provinces ramps up this week after an unfortunate slowdown, some public health officials are warning that Canadians shouldn't decide they can do without vaccine just because they've made it this far without a shot.

The founder and editor-in-chief of a Chinese magazine known for pushing boundaries with the country's censors and chasing stories that could embarrass the government resigned Monday amid friction with her publisher, colleagues and the magazine said.

As if the Taliban, car bombs, roadside bombs, leftover Soviet land mines, political unrest and errant NATO air attacks weren't enough, Afghans are facing a new killer: the H1N1 flu pandemic.

Pop a vitamin, ban doctors' neckties, vacuum away swine flu germs and smoke an e-cigarette to ward off H1N1.

Three leading scientific organizations specializing in infectious diseases prevention issued a letter to President Obama today expressing their significant concern with current federal guidance concerning the use of personal protective equipment by healthcare workers in treating suspected or confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza.

OTTAWA a ' With H1N1 now accounting for virtually all the flu being diagnosed in Canada, critics say Canada was wrong not to have halted production of the regular seasonal flu shots and switched production to H1N1 vaccine sooner.

At least 6,071 people worldwide have been killed by the A/H1N1 influenza as infections continue to increase quickly in the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organization said in a latest update on Friday.

The H1N1 flu pandemic is forcing the hospitalization of a steadily growing number of New Brunswickers, says the province's chief medical officer of health.

I remember it well. My husband had just had serious surgery, and I was asked to leave the hospital to write about congressional hearings on the flu vaccine shortage.

Sat Nov 7, 2009 6:28am EST - People practice coughing into their sleeves as a way to try to control the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus, during a meeting for workers at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Baltimore, September 3, 2009.

Ukraine's presidential election in January could be postponed because of swine flu, a newspaper quoted a government official as saying yesterday.

Passengers wearing protective masks walk inside Mexico's city subway. Canadians should be prepared to hear about more swine flu deaths in the coming weeks as the H1N1 pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down, the country's top doctor warned Nov.

More than 199 countries and overseas territories have reported lab-confirmed cases of A influenza as of November 1, resulting in more than 6000 deaths, according to figures released Friday by the World Health Organization .

A Penobscot County young adult is the second death linked to H1N1 influenza in Maine, and the first since August, according to a press release issued by the Maine CDC in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced the deaths of two people who were infected with the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus Thursday.

In Britain, there are no long lines of people seeking swine flu vaccine. Doctor's offices aren't swamped with desperate calls.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested positive for swine flu, making it the first time the virus has been found in such hogs.Photo by EPA/BGNES Household pets have become infected with the H1N1 flu, but the pandemic virus does not yet spread quickly among animals, the World Health ...

Friday, October 30th, 2009. Issue 44, Volume 9. Riverside County officials have instituted a jail quarantine protocol and are bracing for an onslaught of anxious telephone calls as an agency to the south has reported two more deaths from the swine flu pandemic.

A health school dedicated to tackling the world's killer diseases is to be launched.

H1N1 hospital admissions, deaths up three-fold: health officials People wait for their H1N1 flu shots Thursday, Nov.

Health officials said the number of people hospitalized in San Diego County with swine flu since the H1N1 influenza pandemic began earlier this year now stands at 492.

When the news broke on Wednesday that a domestic cat had come down with H1N1 swine flu, probably transmitted to the feline by sick owners, many people no doubt wondered how vulnerable their own pets were to the illness.

Millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine have already been administered, and so far, no unusual side-effects have been seen, reports The World Health Organization.

U.S. employers who tell workers to stay home when they are sick will have to give them paid time off for up to five days under new federal legislation proposed on Tuesday.

A cat in Iowa has tested positive for H1N1 swine flu, the first time a cat has been diagnosed with the new pandemic strain, the American Veterinary Medical Association said on Wednesday.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on the European Union to help neighbouring Ukraine fight a swine flu epidemic, saying its further spread is threatening the wider bloc.

While many Canadian companies fret about how to deal with staff shortages and dropping revenue from the H1N1 flu, others are profiting from growing demand for everything from hand sanitizer to medical advice.

Ukraine's deadly flu outbreak widened on Wednesday, as government officials announced new emergency measures in an attempt to control the spread of the illness.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine report that cutting back on the consumption of processed and fried foods, which are high in toxins called Advanced Glycation End products , can reduce inflammation and actually help restore the body's natural defenses regardless of age or health status.

A diabetic fly? The fly on the left has normal insulin-like peptides. The fly on the right carries a deletion of insulin-like peptide genes and is small, with symptoms of... College Park, Md -- As rates of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders have reached epidemic proportions in the US in recent years, scientists are working from many angles to ...

An analysis of more than 1,000 California patients hospitalized with H1N1 flu during the first four months of the pandemic found that infants were most likely to be admitted, and patients 50 and older were most likely to die once admitted.

James Beare, 26, wears a mask as he waits in line for the H1N1 vaccine. As the nation faces the twin threat this week of a dramatic vaccine shortfall and "striking" increases in flu activity, federal government data released to Canwest News Service show the provinces and territories have used just over one million doses of swine flu drugs from the ...

Tue Nov 3, 2009 9:20am EST - People wait in line for the H1N1 vaccine as children play in front of signs showing the criteria for receiving the vaccination in Haltom City, Texas in this October 30, 2009 file photo.

Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak.

The swine flu pandemic has received extensive media coverage this year. The World Health Organization, in addition to providing frequent updates about cases of infection and death tolls, recommends hyper vigilance in daily hygiene such as frequent hand washing or sneezing into the crook of our arms.

Chinese Ministry of Health on Monday disproved an online rumor that the recent A/H1N1 influenza outbreak in Beijing was caused by vaccination among students for the country's National Day celebration.

Up to 30 million doses of vaccine against the pandemic H1N1 flu have been delivered to the U.S. government and production is now picking up, officials said on Monday.

Ukraine's Prime Minister says ``There is absolutely no need to panic,'' but the government is closing all schools nationwide for a week to avoid the spread of the Swine Flu.

Long lineups at clogged clinics, a vaccine shortage and widespread confusion have beset Canada's largest-ever immunization campaign as it enters its second week.

Ukraine made an urgent appeal to world powers for help battling swine flu on Sunday, after 60 people died from respiratory problems in a week.

Canada's Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq listens to a question during news conference announcing that H1N1 flu vaccine has been approved in Ottawa October 21, 2009.

Geneva, Oct 31 : More than 700 people have died of swine flu this week raising the number of fatalities from the viral disease to 5,712 worldwide, Xinhua reported citing the UN health agency Friday.

CHINA has inoculated over 3.78 million people against swine flu and distributed over 26 million doses of vaccine to ward off a serious outbreak of the disease, the government said on Sunday.

Health workers will tomorrow kickstart a mass vaccination of people most at risk from swine flu around the country.

Havana, Nov 1 Cuban leader Fidel Castro has said that tourists from countries like Canada and Spain brought the AH1N1 flu virus to his country, and that US President Barack Obama influenced it by easing restrictions on Cuban-Americans' visits to the island.

The government is considering ratcheting up its alert level for Influenza A to the highest level amid growing public concerns that the virus could turn into a pandemic, government officials said Saturday.

Home : Health : Contentious study questions seasonal flu shot for kids Contentious study questions seasonal flu shot for kids Date: Friday Oct.