Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Herpes appears to play a role in bringing about Alzheimer's disease

A gene known to be a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease puts out the welcome mat for the virus that causes cold sores, allowing the virus to be more active in the brain compared to other forms of the gene.

3 Jan 2007

Chronic cough and phlegm means greater risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Young adults (ages 20 to 44) with normal lung function who later develop chronic cough and phlegm have a fourfold higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

2 Jan 2007

Scientists visualize influenza virus particles

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes influenza.

2 Jan 2007

Bird flu doing the rounds in South Korea

Authorities in South Korea say they have found another case of a highly pathogenic bird flu in North Cholla province south of Seoul.

12 Dec 2006

Bird flu vaccine ready in a year but who will get it first?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says a vaccine against the killer H5N1 bird flu virus could be licensed for humans within a year.

11 Dec 2006

Biofunctional organic nanocrystals for quantitative detection of pathogen deoxyribonucleic acid

Waiting a day or more to get lab results back from the doctor's office soon could become a thing of a past.

4 Dec 2006

City kids with asthma lose out on preventive treatment

A new study by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere suggests that only one in five inner-city children with chronic asthma gets enough medicine to control dangerous flare-ups of the disease.

4 Dec 2006

How to save a million lives a year

A promise of $200 million from some of the world's richest nations to fight diseases in poor countries will save more than a million children's lives a year.

1 Dec 2006

Canada says warnings needed on bird flu drug Tamiflu

Canadian health authority Health Canada has requested that the manufacturer of the antiviral drug Tamiflu place warnings on it's labels of adverse effects.

1 Dec 2006

Roche says Tamiflu still number one drug for fighting bird flu

Drug giant Roche has denied there has been any new evidence that suggests resistance to its drug Tamiflu was on the increase.

29 Nov 2006

Bird flu hits another farm in South Korea

A second outbreak of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu at another poultry farm has been confirmed by South Korean authorities; the farm is just 3 km from the first case in North Cholla province in the country's southwest.

29 Nov 2006

South Korea to cull pigs, cats and dogs as well as poultry, to stop bird flu

In an attempt to halt the further spread of the current outbreak of bird flu in South Korea, as well as culling 236,000 poultry, the Agriculture Ministry also plans to cull hundreds of pigs, dogs and cats in the area.

28 Nov 2006

New bird flu drug will provide new line of defence

Flu experts say a new flu drug with the ability to kill deadly strains of bird flu promises to provide a much needed third option should a pandemic occur.

28 Nov 2006

Bird flu crops up again in South Korea

South Korea has found the H5N1 strain of bird flu in chickens at a poultry farm.

27 Nov 2006

US orders more bird flu vaccine for the stockpile

The U.S. government has ordered enough vaccine to protect another 2.7 million people against bird flu.

22 Nov 2006

HHS purchases more vaccines for an influenza pandemic

HHS has announced the purchase of additional vaccine that could be used in the event of a potential influenza pandemic.

20 Nov 2006

Experts say Britain vulnerable to bird flu pandemic

Experts in Britain believe the government should have stockpiled more than one antiviral drug in order to tackle a bird flu pandemic and say Britain has been left vulnerable because the stockpile of anti virus drugs is deficient.

20 Nov 2006

Brookhaven target compounds to fight SARS

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have set the stage for the rapid identification of compounds to fight against severe acquired respiratory syndrome (SARS), the atypical pneumonia responsible for about 800 deaths worldwide since first recognized in late 2002.

20 Nov 2006

Doctors say antibiotics pointless for acute bronchitis

Researchers say they have found no evidence in current literature that antibiotics are effective in treating the vast majority of patients with acute bronchitis and say doctors should stop routinely prescribing them.

16 Nov 2006

Scientists find key to mutations in bird flu virus

An international group of scientists say they have found two spots on the H5N1 bird flu virus that will need to mutate for the virus to infect people more easily.

16 Nov 2006