Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Taming chronic cough

Chronic cough – often causing much discomfort, frustration, irritability and sleep disturbances in 10 percent to 20 percent of adults – is one of the leading reasons for consultation with a physician according to a report published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology , the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

21 Apr 2007

Steroids for acute sinusitis

Every year, nearly 37 million Americans suffer from the sinus pressure, nasal congestion, cough and postnasal drip that accompany sinusitis.

19 Apr 2007

Tailored interventions based on sputum eosinophils versus clinical symptoms for asthma in children and adults

A new review suggests that asthma treatment based on tests of fluid coughed up from the lungs could reduce the frequency and severity of flare-ups in adult asthma patients.

19 Apr 2007

New approach to cystic fibrosis treatment

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that an enzyme produced by lung-infecting bacteria further shuts down a protein that is defective in cystic fibrosis patients.

19 Apr 2007

Flu can actually trigger heart attacks

Doctors need to take concerted action to ensure that people who are at risk of heart disease receive the influenza vaccine every autumn, according to the authors of a new report published in the European Heart Journal.

19 Apr 2007

New risk maps identify geographic areas predicting spread of avian flu

The 2003 epidemic of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the Netherlands is the only recent epidemic of HPAI in the developed world.

19 Apr 2007

No one gets the blame but turkey company gets compensated for bird flu scare

A turkey producer in Britain has been awarded compensation to the tune of almost 600,000 pounds following an outbreak of bird flu at a farm there earlier in the year.

19 Apr 2007

New bill to train more preventive medicine doctors

U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) joined together to take a major step toward stemming the tide of America's eroding preventive medicine and public health workforce.

18 Apr 2007

Collagen injected meatballs!

Injecting meatballs with collagen can help the meat to retain the important nutrients iodine and thiamine, a new study by researchers from the Agricultural University of Poznan in Poland shows.

18 Apr 2007

Vaccination week in the Americas

The countries of the Americas are preparing a huge promotional effort for the fifth year of Vaccination Week in the Americas, which this year aims to immunize some 55 million persons.

18 Apr 2007

FDA approves new bird flu vaccine from sanofi pasteur

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the first approval in the United States of a vaccine for humans against the H5N1 influenza virus, commonly known as avian or bird flu.

18 Apr 2007

Irish smoking ban effective at clearing the air

A national workplace ban on smoking in Ireland resulted in an 83 percent reduction in air pollution in pubs, an 80 percent decrease in airborne carcinogens for patrons and staff, and an improvement in the respiratory health of bar workers, according to a one-year follow-up study.

17 Apr 2007

H5N1 western genomes sequenced

In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases , an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1.

17 Apr 2007

U.S. ready for bird flu

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has approved for the first time a vaccine to prevent bird flu in humans.

17 Apr 2007

Bristol-Myers Squibb announces new results of Baraclude (entecavir) resistance monitoring program

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has announced new results of the Baraclude (entecavir) resistance monitoring program, which found a continued low incidence of resistance in studies of nucleoside-naive chronic hepatitis B patients through four years of treatment.

16 Apr 2007

Should stocks of smallpox virus be destroyed?

Smallpox was eradicated in 1980, but the virus still exists in WHO controlled depositories. In this week's BMJ , two experts go head to head over whether these stocks should be destroyed.

15 Apr 2007

Understanding of primate evolution advanced

The completed DNA sequence of the rhesus macaque ,an Old World monkey, has advanced understanding of primate evolution and will enhance medical research in neuroscience, behavioral biology, reproductive physiology, endocrinology, heart and blood vessel disease and immunodeficiency, said scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Human Genome Sequencing Center who led the effort.

15 Apr 2007

New, updated guidelines for esophageal reflux testing

Developed and approved by the American College of Gastroenterology, these guidelines summarize advances in gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) diagnostic testing and how they have modified the clinical management of esophageal disorders.

14 Apr 2007

BioForce Nanosciences pursues support for ViriChip platform

BioForce Nanosciences continues their effort to fund development of the ViriChip platform, a patented system designed to rapidly and nondestructively detect and identify whole viruses.

12 Apr 2007

Freedom from the egg holds much promise for new flu vaccines

An experimental flu vaccine made in insect cells – not in eggs, where flu vaccines currently available in the United States are grown – is safe and as effective as conventional vaccines in protecting people against the flu, according to results published in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association .

11 Apr 2007