Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Cholera vaccine in a grain of rice

Japanese scientists have come up with a new strain of rice that carries a vaccine for cholera; they say the breakthrough will provide a cheaper and easier way of distributing the standard injection-based vaccine.

12 Jun 2007

Babies given antibiotics more likely to develop asthma

Canadian researchers are suggesting that children who receive antibiotics as infants have a greater risk of developing asthma by the age of 7, than those children not given antibiotics.

12 Jun 2007

Autism - MMR vaccine has it's day in court

A test case in an American court could in one way or another settle the debate on the possible link between autism and childhood vaccines.

11 Jun 2007

More deaths from bird flu in Egypt

A spokesperson for Egypt's health ministry has confirmed that a 10 year-old girl has become the youngest victim in Egypt of bird flu since the first human case was recorded in the country in March 2006 and is the country's 15th fatality from the deadly virus.

11 Jun 2007

Human bird flu suspects in Malaysia quarantined

Health officials in Malaysia say two people have been quarantined in Malaysian hospitals with suspected bird flu and health officials are also looking into the suspected case in an elderly patient in the state of Selangor.

11 Jun 2007

miRNAs shown to be a critical force behind the anti-proliferation potential of p53

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers led by Lin He, Xingyue He, and Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator (HHMI) Greg Hannon have identified a family of micro RNAs (miRNAs) that enable a critical tumor suppressor network, called the p53 pathway, to fight cancer growth.

8 Jun 2007

Congress urged to cover home infusion therapy for Medicare beneficiaries

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is urging Congress to support the Medicare Home Infusion Therapy Coverage Act of 2007 (H.R. 2567), bipartisan legislation introduced yesterday by Reps.

8 Jun 2007

Causes and treatment of degenerative disk disease

Back pain can interfere with normal activities. One of the most common causes is degenerative disk disease. Fortunately, there is help.

8 Jun 2007

Aging stem cells in mice may hold answers to diseases of the aged

As stem cells in the blood grow older, genetic mutations accumulate that could be at the root of blood diseases that strike people as they age, according to work done in mice by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

8 Jun 2007

Singapore too finds poison Chinese toothpaste

Singapore is the latest country to question China's food safety standards after Chinese-made toothpaste was found to contain diethylene glycol, or DEG, a poisonous chemical used in solvents and anti-freeze.

7 Jun 2007

Bird flu back in China

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported another death from bird flu in China.

5 Jun 2007

TB test offers patients quicker and easier diagnosis

A new test for diagnosing TB offers a quick and simple alternative to existing three-day methods, according to research published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

5 Jun 2007

Bird flu winging it around Vietnam again...more humans affected

As Vietnam copes with its first confirmed human cases of bird flu since November 2005, more outbreaks of the deadly virus have been appearing in ducklings in Vietnam's northern region.

4 Jun 2007

China in denial over toxic toothpaste

Authorities in China have called warnings about Chinese-made toothpaste by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both unscientific and irresponsible.

3 Jun 2007

FDA provides guidance to help increase supply of influenza vaccines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued final recommendations to increase the supply of safe and effective influenza vaccines for both seasonal and pandemic use.

3 Jun 2007

New test for diagnosing TB - quicker and easier

A new test for diagnosing TB offers a quick and simple alternative to existing three-day methods, according to research published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

3 Jun 2007

Exposure to flu vaccine kick-starts fetal immune system in pregnant mothers

Some researchers have hypothesized that the fetus can be exposed to and mount an immune response against allergens to which the mother has been exposed, and this may have an effect on the development of allergic sensitivity (e.g. eczema and asthma) later in an infant's life.

3 Jun 2007

Avoid Chinese toothpaste!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today warned consumers to avoid using tubes of toothpaste labeled as made in China, and issued an import alert to prevent toothpaste containing the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG) from entering the United States.

3 Jun 2007

New protocols to understand embryos, clones, stem cells

Cloning, X-chromosome inactivation, stem cells, and embryogenesis are hot areas of research at the moment, and protocols featured in this month's release of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols will aid these studies.

3 Jun 2007

Study looks at brain damage that occurs after stroke

Brain damage that occurs even days after a stroke, increasing stroke size and devastation, is the focus of researchers trying to identify new treatments.

1 Jun 2007