Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Clinical study supports safety, efficacy of GI Windows’ IAS as treatment option for Type 2 diabetes

GI Windows, Inc., a clinical-stage medical device company, today announced the presentation of six-month results of the first-ever clinical study evaluating the endoscopic creation of a dual-path enteral diversion using the company’s Incision-less Anastomosis System (IAS) at Digestive Disease Week® 2016 (DDW), in San Diego, Calif.

26 May 2016

Scientists study how viral evolution occurs

Viruses evolve quickly. A small tweak to the genetic makeup of a mostly mild strain of influenza can give rise to the next pandemic. An equally small change to the same strain in a different setting can fade it into obscurity.

24 May 2016

UCLA, Danish research yields proof that treatment-as-prevention strategy could eliminate HIV

Worldwide, about 35 million people are living with HIV. The World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS plan to use an approach called "treatment as prevention" to eliminate the global pandemic, which the WHO says will have occurred when only one person out of 1,000 becomes infected each year.

11 May 2016

Flu vaccinations for pregnant women reduce newborn’s influenza risk during first six months of life

Babies whose moms get flu vaccinations while pregnant have a significantly reduced risk of acquiring influenza during their first six months of life, a new study shows, leading the authors to declare that the need for getting more pregnant women immunized is a public health priority.

3 May 2016

PANDHUB project develops ways of reducing pandemic risk in transport hubs

Transport plays a major role in the spread of transmissible diseases. PANDHUB, a project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, develops ways of reducing the risk of pandemics and managing other high-threat pathogen incidents in transport hubs.

27 Apr 2016

Study highlights potential emergence of new swine flu strains

The wide diversity of flu in pigs across multiple continents, mostly introduced from humans, highlights the significant potential of new swine flu strains emerging, according to a study to be published in eLife.

26 Apr 2016

Seasonal trivalent influenza vaccination during pregnancy may guard against stillbirth

Seasonal influenza vaccination may guard against stillbirth, a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online suggests. Researchers in Western Australia analyzed data from nearly 60,000 births that occurred during the southern hemisphere's 2012 and 2013 seasonal influenza epidemics, and found that women who received the trivalent influenza vaccine during pregnancy were 51 percent less likely to experience a stillbirth than unvaccinated mothers.

2 Apr 2016

UGA and Sanofi Pasteur researchers develop new H1N1 influenza vaccine

Researchers at the University of Georgia and Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced today the development of a vaccine that protects against multiple strains of both seasonal and pandemic H1N1 influenza in mouse models.

30 Mar 2016

Global Health Frontiers' four-part newsmagazine series premieres on public television’s WORLD Channel

The acclaimed public television documentary series Global Health Frontiers expands to a weekly newsmagazine with four one-hour episodes combining compelling journalism from the leading edges of global health developments with a fast-paced and energetic style.

23 Mar 2016

Computer-assisted methods may help as decision support system to combat Zika virus

Global climate change, international travel, and ineffective vector control programs are aiding the emergence of infectious diseases globally. The currently expanding Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic is one such problem.

21 Mar 2016

AMP disappointed as FDA takes enforcement action against physicians for Zika virus test

The Association for Molecular Pathology, the premier global, professional society serving molecular diagnostics professionals, is very concerned and disappointed to see the FDA taking enforcement action against the physicians at Texas Children's Hospital and Houston Methodist Hospital for their laboratory developed procedure (LDP) for Zika virus, which was designed to identify virus-specific RNA sequences in a large metropolitan area.

16 Mar 2016

Vanderbilt investigators isolate human antibodies against H7 bird flu

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have isolated human antibodies against a type of bird flu that has killed more than 200 people in China since 2012 and which may pose a worldwide pandemic threat.

10 Mar 2016

Preventing the spread of Zika: an interview with Professor John Oxford

The link between the Zika virus and Guillain-Barré on the one hand, and pregnancy and the virus affecting the fetus in terms of microcephaly on the other, is still not confirmed conclusively.

1 Mar 2016

Cryo-electron microscopy helps analyze infection mechanisms of coronaviruses in detail

High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and supercomputing have now made it possible to analyze in detail the infection mechanisms of coronaviruses. These viruses are notorious for attacking the respiratory tract of humans and animals.

27 Feb 2016

EPFL researchers develop portable microfluidic diagnostic device to detect different diseases

When remote regions with limited health facilities experience an epidemic, they need portable diagnostic equipment that functions outside the hospital. As demand for such equipment grows, EPFL researchers have developed a low-cost and portable microfluidic diagnostic device. It has been tested on Ebola and can be used to detect many other diseases.

22 Feb 2016

BiondVax gains additional support from NATI for ongoing development of Universal Flu Vaccine

BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. announced today that the National Authority for Technological Innovation, formerly known as the Office of the Chief Scientist, agreed to fund up to 40% of a NIS 3.6 million (US$920,000) project towards ongoing development of the Company's Universal Flu Vaccine.

18 Feb 2016

Umeå University experts describe innovative interventions for fighting Zika virus in Europe

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden help assess the risk that Zika will spread to Europe by describing the transmission season, areas at risk and intervention strategies. By using previous knowledge on Dengue, they are now strategizing on how Zika can be controlled.

9 Feb 2016

Innate lymphoid cells get destroyed in patients infected with HIV

A research project headed by Henrik Kloeverpris, a postdoc at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen, shows that the so-called ILCs (innate lymphoid cells) - a component of the immune system crucial to maintaining immune system balance - are destroyed in patients infected with HIV.

4 Feb 2016

Immunotherapy could be the future of cancer treatments

For decades most cancers have been treated with the standard of care treatments which typically include surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy. Now there is talk that immunotherapy represents "the future of cancer treatments."

21 Jan 2016

Minor flu strains carry bigger viral punch

Minor variants of flu strains, which are not typically targeted in vaccines, carry a bigger viral punch than previously realized, a team of scientists has found. Its research, which examined samples from the 2009 flu pandemic in Hong Kong, shows that these minor strains are transmitted along with the major strains and can replicate and elude immunizations.

5 Jan 2016