In a new study published online in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, Dr. Vincent J. Munster, of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, and colleagues identify new host species for avian influenza A virus (H5N1) and provide important information on the distinctions between the ecology and epidemiology of various global strains of the virus.
When emergency teams are well informed and governments can coordinate their efforts, lives and property can be saved. The Health Early Warning System, a project supported by ESA, is intended to bring this benefit to Europe.
GlaxoSmithKline [GSK: NYSE] commended the commitment of the World Health Organization (WHO) to progress plans for ensuring that the world?s most vulnerable people are protected in the event of a pandemic. Key elements of that commitment include progress being made towards the development of an H5N1 vaccine global stockpile by the WHO, and efforts to establish an additional mechanism to ensure broader access to pandemic influenza vaccine for developing world countries.
Regular as clockwork, the flu arrives every year. And, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population on average will come down with it. About 36,000 people will die.
Bird flu has struck poultry in central Vietnam again. Bird flu has been found on a duck farm in central Vietnam.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today released interim advice to the public about the use of facemasks and respirators in certain public (non-occupational) settings during an influenza pandemic. There is very little research about the value of masks to protect people in public settings. These interim recommendations are based on the best judgment of public health experts who relied in part on information about the protective value of masks in healthcare facilities.
Mumps cases started appearing earlier this year in Canada, spreading quickly to Ontario in Canada. Mumps has infected more than 200 people.
The stigma of mental illness acts as a roadblock for treatment for the more than 54 million Americans, one in 5, according to the National Institute on Mental Health, who suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Of that number, many don?t seek treatment, at a time when awareness about mental illness has grown.
In the event of a smallpox outbreak in the United States, how long would it take for a vaccine to start protecting Americans by stimulating an immune response? A new national study led by Saint Louis University School of Medicine will attempt to answer this question.
An interactive “supermap” that portrays the mutations and spread of the avian flu around the globe over time should help researchers and policy makers better understand the virus and anticipate further outbreaks, according to a new study involving University of Colorado at Boulder and Ohio State University researchers.