Disease/Infection News

RSS

In a bird flu pandemic 40% will take a sickie

According to new research in the U.S. in the event the world is subjected to a bird flu pandemic, four in every ten health professionals will stay away from work.

18 Apr 2006

Role of migratory birds in the spread of avian influenza amongst bird populations in the European Union

European Food Safety Authority - EFSA has published a scientific statement on the role of migratory birds in the spread of avian influenza amongst bird populations in the European Union.

18 Apr 2006

Mass vaccination in Bangladesh to halt the spread of Polio

The recent re-emergence of polio in Bangladesh has prompted a vaccination campaign aimed at as many as 18 million children the age of 5.

17 Apr 2006

Mad cow disease appears again in Canadian cattle

According to Canada's Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), tests have confirmed that a six-year-old dairy cow in the Canadian province of British Columbia suffered from mad cow disease.

16 Apr 2006

Concern over spread of Mumps in the U.S.

Health officials in the United States have voiced concern about an outbreak of mumps in the Midwest and say they believe some people may have become infected on airline flights.

16 Apr 2006

U.S. pandemic response plan - a license to print money

The U.S. government plans to deal with a bird flu pandemic would apparently expand the Internet and possibly allow other countries to print U.S. money.

16 Apr 2006

Pakistanis on alert as bird flu crops up on another farm

According to authorities in Pakistan there has been another outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus on a poultry farm.

16 Apr 2006

U.S. expert says one wild bird does not make a pandemic, while Egypt finds bird flu case # 12

Egyptian health officials have reported another case of human bird flu in the country bringing the total there to date to 12.

13 Apr 2006

Scientists step closer to new treatments for river blindness

Veterinary scientists in Liverpool have found that some African cattle have natural immunity to a parasite, similar to that which causes river blindness in humans.

13 Apr 2006

Swansong - dead swan a foreigner and one and only so far

The dead swan found in Fife in Scotland on March 29th has now been identified by DNA tests as one of a migratory species, quelling fears that it was the harbinger of the first outbreak in the UK.

12 Apr 2006

Bird flu case # 33 in Indonesia

The World Health Organization has confirmed that a 23-year-old male poultry worker currently undergoing treatment in Sumatra has bird flu.

12 Apr 2006

Swine disease in China caused toxic shock syndrome

A large and deadly outbreak of Streptococcus suis disease, in Sichuan province in China last year alarmed health officials worldwide and now scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and other Chinese institutions have published the first scientific details of the outbreak.

12 Apr 2006

Environmental change and viral mutations combine to fuel outbreaks of a deadly mosquito-borne disease

Environmental change and viral mutations have combined to fuel outbreaks of a deadly mosquito-borne disease that have plagued South and Central America for the last 100 years, a new study by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and Colorado State University researchers reports.

11 Apr 2006

Burma struggling to cope with over 100 bird flu outbreaks

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says the situation concerning the bird flu virus in Myanmar (Burma) now appears far more serious than first thought.

11 Apr 2006

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus suis Serotype 2

Last year, there was major press coverage of an alarmingly large and deadly outbreak of Streptococcus suis disease in Sichuan province in China.

11 Apr 2006

Japanese encephalitis in Bali widespread

Japanese encephalitis might be more widespread in Indonesia than previously thought.

11 Apr 2006

Common sense prevails as Brits say one dead swan is not a pandemic

According to a government health adviser, a bird flu pandemic among humans could kill 100,000 children in Britain.

10 Apr 2006

Expert says no bird flu in British poultry

Despite the discovery of a dead swan infected with bird flu in Scotland panic has abated over the possibility of a widespread outbreak of bird flu in the UK.

10 Apr 2006

African sleeping sickness

Each year, over 300,000 people die of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Free University of Brussels are making strides in the battle against this disease.

10 Apr 2006

New approach to treating hepatitis C virus

Last year Peter Sarnow, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, identified a previously unknown mechanism that the hepatitis C virus uses to replicate, yielding a promising new approach to combating the disease-causing virus.

10 Apr 2006