The World Health Organization criticized the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture officials for not informing the global community of the emergence of a new variant of the worrisome H5N1 avian flu virus – Fujian-like virus, and hoarding virus samples and for not doing enough to contain the spread of H5N1 in poultry.
The Ministry of Health in Egypt has confirmed the country?s seventh death from H5N1 avian influenza. The 39-year-old woman, whose infection was confirmed on 11 October, died on 30 October.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been detected in at least 55 countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. This often fatal disease is of pressing concern because it can be transmitted from birds to humans, although such transmissions have been rare so far. Unfortunately, according to a Roundtable article in the November 2006 BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), critical information about incidence of the disease in wild birds–even the species of the infected bird–is often recorded inaccurately or not recorded at all. The deficiencies in data collection, the authors write, “can lead to unwarranted assumptions and conclusions that in turn affect public perceptions, practical control and management measures, and the disposition of resources.”
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) announced data from a three-year cohort (ETV-022/901, n=119), which showed BARACLUDE? (entecavir) suppressed viral load to undetectable levels in 90 percent of nucleoside-na?ve chronic hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) positive patients at week 144 who continued on-treatment from week 96. In this cohort, undetectable HBV DNA levels were defined as less than 300 copies per mL of blood as measured by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Suppression of viral load to undetectable levels is one of several measures of antiviral treatment response; a sustained, undetectable viral load is an important goal of chronic hepatitis B treatment. The results of this three-year cohort were presented today at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).
In a new clinical practice guideline, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) outlines recommendations for diagnosing and managing bronchiolitis, the most common lower respiratory infection in children under age 2. The symptoms of bronchiolitis often mirror those of asthma or bacterial pneumonia, resulting in misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment.
Scientists have detected a new strain of H5N1 bird flu virus in China and warned it might have started another wave of outbreaks in poultry in Southeast Asia and move deeper into Eurasia. The development of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses in poultry in Eurasia accompanied with the increase in human infection in 2006 suggests that the virus has not been effectively contained and that the pandemic threat persists.
In the case of an outbreak of pandemic flu, large majority of Americans willing to make major changes in their lives. Survey also finds many people would face critical work-related problems. The latest national survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Project on the Public and Biological Security finds that when faced with a serious outbreak of pandemic flu, a large majority of Americans are willing to make major changes in their lives and cooperate with public health officials’ recommendations.
“Friends, as the winters are coming, they are bringing influenza with them. So, be prepared to fight the disease and know about it,” Dr. Poonam Singhal. Influenza, also called grippe or flu, an acute contagious viral infection characterized by inflammation of the respiratory tract and by fever, chills, muscular pain, and prostration, with cough, cold, sneezings, intense frontal headache, pain and aches in joints, fever (100 deg. F to 105 deg. F), nausea, etc.
Dr. Jeanne Santoli is an MD and a Master in Public Health. She is Deputy Director of the Immunization Services Division at the National Centers of – National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC. In a recent press conference, she told that when there is disease present in a community, individuals may still benefit from vaccinations, so the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against influenza.
In the wake of growing number of mumps cases in the US, the American medical authorities have updated their vaccination recommendations & asked for utilizing every opportunity to provide immunization to high-risk populations.