'Barcoding' Viruses For Rapid Detection Of Mutated Strains
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Dr Julian Hiscox and Dr John Barr of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences are working with the Health Protection Agency Porton (HPA) to build a bank of molecular signatures that will help identify the severity of virus infection from characteristic changes seen in cells...
read
more...
|
H1N1 Discovery Paves Way For Universal Flu Vaccine
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
University of British Columbia researchers have found a potential way to develop universal flu vaccines and eliminate the need for seasonal flu vaccinations. Each year, seasonal influenza causes serious illnesses in three to five million people and 200,000 to 500,000 deaths. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic killed more than 14,000 people worldwide...
read
more...
|
Oral Zinc Found To Reduce Common Cold Symptoms In Adults More Than Kids
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
People who take oral zinc may experience shorter common cold symptoms than those who do not, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, and McMaster University reported in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).The authors added that adverse effects, especially when higher doses are taken, are common...
read
more...
|
Flu Vaccine Rates Improved Via Texting For Low Income Children
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
According to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA, the coverage for children to get vaccinated against influenza increased amongst low-income, hard-to-reach, minority children and adolescents if their patients received education-related text message reminders, as compared with the standard care, even though the overall coverage remained low...
read
more...
|
Patient Trial For New Asthma Treatment Yields Positive Results
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Scientists from the University of Southampton and Synairgen, a respiratory drug development company spun out from the University, can announce positive data from its Phase II clinical trial, into the effectiveness of the drug SNG001 (inhaled interferon beta) for asthma patients...
read
more...
|
Age, Flu And Resistance
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
There is a connection between age and susceptibility to the influenza virus. It can't be explained by frailty in general, because it is not obvious that very small children and the very old are the biggest risk groups...
read
more...
|
Full Reports From Trials Should Be Public: Regulators Respond To Tamiflu Recommendations
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
The full clinical study reports that drugs that have been authorized for use in patients should be made publicly available in order to allow independent re-analysis of the benefits and risks of such drugs, according to leading international experts who base their assertions on their experience with Tamiflu (oseltamivir)...
read
more...
|
For An Enhanced Flu Vaccine, Four Works Better Than Three
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
An intranasal vaccine that includes four weakened strains of influenza could do a better job in protecting children from the flu than current vaccines, Saint Louis University research shows. Before each influenza season, scientists predict which strains of flu will be circulating and make a trivalent vaccine that includes three strains of influenza -- two of influenza A and one of influenza B...
read
more...
|
Study Identifies Genetic Regulators Hijacked By Avian And Swine Flu Viruses
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
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. The discovery, published in the Journal of Virology, could reveal new targets for broad-spectrum antivirals to combat current - and perhaps future - strains of influenza A viruses...
read
more...
|
Adjuvanted Flu Vaccine Associated With Child Narcolepsy In Finland
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
A sudden increase in narcolepsy in Finnish children at the beginning of 2010 was likely related to the Pandemrix vaccine used in response to the H1N1 2009 flu pandemic, according to two reports published in the open access journal PLoS ONE...
read
more...
|
Microfluidic Chip Developed To Stem Flu Outbreaks
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
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...
read
more...
|
La Nina Could Set The Stage For Flu Pandemics
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
What do changes in weather and stressed-out birds have to do with your health? In a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jeffry Shaman of Columbia University and Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University are beginning to see a new link between La Nina conditions and outbreaks of the flu that could help governments and public health officials determine when the ne...
read
more...
|
Gene Explains Why Flu Can Be Serious
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
People with a rare variant of a gene that codes for an anti-viral protein are more likely to end up in hospital seriously ill when they get the flu than others who carry other variants, according to new research led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK that was published in Nature on Sunday...
read
more...
|
Gene That Can Transform Mild Influenza To A Life-Threatening Disease
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
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...
read
more...
|
The Brazilian Navy And The Spanish Flu
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Few people know about the participation of Brazil in Word War I. Although Brazil remained neutral during most of the conflict, it eventually sent a fleet to support the war effort against the central powers. It was the only Latin-American country to do so...
read
more...
|
For Disease Surveillance, Smartphones More Accurate, Faster, Cheaper
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Smartphones are showing promise in disease surveillance in the developing world. The Kenya Ministry of Health, along with researchers in Kenya for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that smartphone use was cheaper than traditional paper survey methods to gather disease information, after the initial set-up cost...
read
more...
|
Getting Healthcare Workers To Take Flu Jab - They Need To Believe They Work
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
A study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reveals that believing in the actual effectiveness of the seasonal flu jab is by far more effective in persuading healthcare professional to get vaccinated, as compared with potentially protecting patients from risking infection...
read
more...
|
Flu Protection Boosted By Microneedle Vaccine Patch
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Recent research found that microneedle vaccine patches are more effective at delivering protection against influenza virus in mice than subcutaneous or intramuscular inoculation. A new, detailed analysis of the early immune responses by the Emory and Georgia Tech research team helps explain why the skin is such fertile ground for vaccination with these tiny, virtually painless microneedles...
read
more...
|
Rapid Flu Tests - How Accurate Are They?
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Canadian researchers have examined the accuracy of rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) in a meta-analysis of 159 studies. The results, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, revealed that although RIDTs can confirm the flu, they do not rule it out and that RIDTs are also better at identifying the influenza A virus, which is more common, than the influenza B virus...
read
more...
|
Natural Killer T Cells Reduce The Accumulation Of Monocytes And Prevent Lung Injury In Severe Flu
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
While some scientists report engineering a super virulent strain of the H5N1 influenza virus, which could potentially wipe out a significant percentage of the human population, another group of researchers from the United Kingdom now reports a discovery that may one day help mitigate the deadly effects of all flu strains...
read
more...
|
First Quadrivalent Vaccine Against Seasonal Flu Wins FDA Approval
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
On Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration announced it had approved FluMist Quadrivalent, a vaccine to prevent seasonal influenza in people aged 2 to 49 years. This is the first quadrivalent flu vaccine, that is one that contains four strains of flu virus, the agency has approved...
read
more...
|
Flu Tests Good At Diagnosing Flu, Bad At Ruling In Out
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Experts say that the 2012 flu season is just starting, and although it is later than usual, they expect that about 5 million people will contract a severe form of flu that will claim 500,000 lives. Those most vulnerable are young children and older adults...
read
more...
|
Influenza A Virus In Fruit Bats
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
After the discovery of a new influenza A virus in fruit bats in Guatemala, a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reveals that the virus represents no current threat to humans, although scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of the Valley of Guatemala, recommend to research the virus as a potential so...
read
more...
|
Flu Virus Discovered In Bats
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have discovered evidence of a new influenza type A virus in Guatemalan fruit bats...
read
more...
|
Wide-Scale Flu Prevention Via 'Universal' Vaccines
Copyright 2012 Medical News Today |
An emerging class of long-lasting flu vaccines could do more than just save people the trouble of an annual flu shot. Princeton University-based researchers have found that the "universal" vaccine could for the first time allow for the effective, wide-scale prevention of flu by limiting the influenza virus' ability to spread and mutate...
read
more...
|