Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Securing pharmacists into the future

A need to ensure future generations of pharmacists for rural and regional Australia has driven third generation pharmacist Peter Gissing to take the helm of the Charles Sturt Pharmacy Foundation.

29 Apr 2004

Canada kicks off National Immunization Awareness Week

Marking National Immunization Awareness Week, Canada's health ministers today encouraged parents and care givers across the country to have their children immunized.

28 Apr 2004

Study finds America’s hospital emergency rooms are overcrowded with patients

America’s hospital emergency rooms are overcrowded with patients who may be better served in doctors’ offices or other clinic settings, according to a national study of insured emergency patients conducted by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation on Health Care and the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University.

28 Apr 2004

Two outbreaks in humans of deadly Nipah virus in reported Bangladesh

Wildlife Trust's Consortium for Conservation Medicine reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has now confirmed two recent outbreaks in humans of deadly Nipah virus in Bangladesh. The Consortium has been researching the origins of Nipah virus under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

28 Apr 2004

People with uncontrolled epilepsy have low levels of a certain fatty acid

Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial to the proper development and function of cell membranes in the brain. But one particular fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is found at abnormally low levels in patients with uncontrolled epilepsy, according to researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

28 Apr 2004

British doctors say 40% or 9 million sick notes are suspect each year

British doctors get 22 million requests for sick-notes every year - and they estimate that nine million of these are suspect, according to a new report.

28 Apr 2004

$11 million for lung injury research

Northwestern University has received an $11 million Program Project Grant (PPG) from the National Institutes of Health to define the mechanisms that cause changes in the alveolar epithelium during lung injury.

27 Apr 2004

Pennsylvania's restaurants, stadiums, bars and supermarkets are adjusting to revised food safety requirements

Pennsylvania's restaurants, stadiums, bars and supermarkets are adjusting to revised food safety requirements in the Pennsylvania Food Code, according to a specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

27 Apr 2004

Inspire announces positive results in cystic fibrosis study

Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced top-line results in a Phase II study of INS37217 Respiratory in patients with mild cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease.

27 Apr 2004

Britain wheezes at bottom of European lung league

Data from The European Respiratory Society’s (ERS) new European Lung White Book shows that the death rate from respiratory diseases in the UK is 105 per 100,000 people, which is twice the EU average. The only countries with a higher rate are former Soviet Union countries - Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – and Ireland.

27 Apr 2004

Morning cough six times more likely to disappear if you stop smoking

It seems logical enough: if you stop smoking, there is every chance that certain tobacco-related complaints will improve or even disappear. Yet no long-term study has ever been undertaken to confirm or disprove this piece of folk wisdom. A cohort study to be published in April's European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) will now fill that gap.

27 Apr 2004

Illinois, hospital beds and other health care services to be monitored

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today announced the launch of a $450,000 Web-based system that provides the state with up-to-the-minute information from more than 200 hospitals in Illinois on the availability of beds and other critical health care services necessary to guide the response to an act of terrorism or other public health emergency.

27 Apr 2004

SARS experts head to China

At the request of the Chinese Ministry of Health, WHO is today sending the first members of an international team to help investigate the source of SARS cases recently reported in Beijing and the eastern province of Anhui. The team, which is expected to begin work on Wednesday, will include experts in epidemiology, virology, infection control, and laboratory biosafety.

26 Apr 2004

SARS antibody sent to China

Responding to a request from a Chinese biotechnology company working closely with officials in China, Medarex, Inc. and the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories (MBL) of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have shipped to Beijing a sample of the fully human antibody to SARS developed by Medarex and MBL/UMMS.

26 Apr 2004

Diets like Atkins could help prevent Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and Parkinson's disease

Though diets like Atkins and South Beach are the current rage, an emerging eating philosophy may do more than temporarily take off pounds: It could help treat disease.

26 Apr 2004

Overview of West Nile virus before season starts

West Nile virus is a newly emergent virus of the family Flaviviridae, found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is also the cause of a number of conditions in humans, horses, and some other mammals. It is transmitted by bites of infected mosquitoes.

24 Apr 2004