Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

World's poor at huge risk from bird flu

ActionAid International, one of the UK's charity largest development charities which works with over five million of the world's poorest people, has warned that when it comes to the fight against bird flu, in the developing world, making plans is not enough.

22 Feb 2006

Two drug giants team up to develop new bird flu therapy

Two major drug companies have teamed up in order to develop a treatment for pandemic flu strains.

22 Feb 2006

High alert as bird flu sweeps relentlessly across the globe

The spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu continues relentlessly across the world with the confirmation that dead swans found in Hungary and Croatia this week also succumbed to the virus.

22 Feb 2006

Concern grows over possible bird flu spread in West Africa

The FAO has expressed growing concern that the bird flu virus H5N1 may spread to other countries in West Africa following the discovery of the virus in Nigeria last week. The effects on a region already facing severe malnutrition would be devastating, the UN agency warned.

21 Feb 2006

Mutations in H5N1 avian influenza viruses

Several recent media reports have included speculations about the significance of mutations in H5N1 avian influenza viruses. Some reports have suggested that the likelihood of another pandemic may have increased as a result of changes in the virus.

21 Feb 2006

Animals diseases jumping to humans faster than ever before

According to scientists in the U.S. and Scotland, 75% of the 38 species of harmful organisms and viruses identified in the past 25 years are believed to have "jumped" from animals to humans.

21 Feb 2006

Media coverage on flu influences parents to vaccinate their children

Media coverage about influenza and the importance of flu shots influenced parents to vaccinate their children against the influenza virus, according to a study done by researchers and information officers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

21 Feb 2006

Britain too laid back about bird flu

Despite the fact that France's first-known case of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu was found in a duck which is a winter migrant to Ireland and western Britain from Russia and Eastern Europe, authorities in the UK appear to have no immediate plans to order Britain's 25 million free-range chickens to be kept indoors.

20 Feb 2006

Healthy preterm infants younger than 12 weeks show reduced lung function

Tests of healthy preterm infants younger than 12 weeks of age show prematurity to be independently associated with reduced lung function. Predictors of this reduced expiratory flow during the first months of life include male sex, low gestational age and increased weight gain.

19 Feb 2006

Death toll reaches 93 as bird flu hits India, France and Egypt

Health officials in India say they have found the country's first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, following the death of chickens from the virus on poultry farms in the western town of Navapur.

19 Feb 2006

Bird flu gets a grip on Europe

The European Union has agreed to adopt new measures in an effort to control the hold bird flu appears have gained in the region.

19 Feb 2006

Cooking on wood stoves affects women in developing countries

Women in developing countries who cook over a wood stove for years and inhale the smoke can develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and experience the same clinical characteristics, diminished quality of life and increased mortality rates as tobacco smokers.

17 Feb 2006

Scientists put ehrlichiosis under the genomic spotlight

Ehrlichiosis is no star of science. This emerging disease has an awkward name, vague flu-like symptoms, and a nasty habit of being caused by bacteria that live inside ticks and flatworms.

17 Feb 2006

New flu vaccine takes weeks to mass produce

Using cell-based methods researchers have developed a commercially viable method for mass producing effective vaccines against potential pandemic influenza strains in weeks instead of the months required for traditional egg-based vaccines.

17 Feb 2006

Genome data may contain small but significant errors

Since the genome sequence of the bacterial pathogen Haemophilus influenzae was published in 1995, the genetic code of many other large, complex, medically, and commercially significant organisms including humans has also been elucidated

17 Feb 2006

Global warming may be reducing respiratory illnesses

Rising global temperatures over the past two decades may be responsible for a shortened season of a serious respiratory illness in the United Kingdom, according to an article in the March 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

16 Feb 2006

Diagnosing whooping cough in young children

Whooping cough (pertussis) is most easily diagnosed in young children because they develop a characteristic cough - paroxysms of coughing followed by a long inspiration that makes a whooping sound.

16 Feb 2006

Diuretics improve exercise capacity in patients with congestive heart failure

Diuretics reduce the risk of death, delay heart deterioration and improve exercise capacity in patients with congestive heart failure, a new review of studies shows.

16 Feb 2006

Taking aim at one of mankind's most common diseases

A detailed structural picture of a molecule that plays a key role in activating the Epstein Barr Virus in human cells has now been obtained by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Institute of Molecular and Structural Virology (IVMS), associated with the University Joseph Fourier and the CNRS, in Grenoble.

16 Feb 2006