Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Supplements boost immune system and offer protection against seasonal flu

Accompanied by a chorus of coughs and sniffles, the winter season has arrived. "Protecting your health during this year's winter season should be a top priority for people," said Tom Tolworthy, CEO and Chief Health Enthusiast for The Vitamin Shoppe. "Many of our customers are being proactive in boosting their immune systems this time of year."

15 Dec 2009

Ethanol can worsen global health problems

Ethanol, often promoted as a clean-burning, renewable fuel that could help wean the nation from oil, would likely worsen health problems caused by ozone, compared with gasoline, especially in winter, according to a new study led by Stanford researchers.

15 Dec 2009

Scientists create Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool to model the spread of pandemic influenza

As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies.

15 Dec 2009

IOM issues review of national vaccine strategy

Reuters: To strengthen U.S. national vaccine strategy, the country "needs to establish a permanent group that advises the government on vaccine safety and spend more money to address safety concerns about vaccines," according to a report released Friday by the Institute of Medicine.

15 Dec 2009

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries receives approval for newly revised prescribing information for AZILECT

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the newly revised prescribing information for AZILECT® (rasagiline tablets) reducing medication and food restrictions.

15 Dec 2009

DeParle gets GOP cold shoulder on health reform

Politico: "Senate Republicans say they want to 'smoke out' Democratic senators who could help them bring down the health care bill, and so far, they think they've found one in Sen. Jim Webb. With all the attention focused on four other fence-sitting moderates, Webb has voted with Republicans six times on the first series of amendments on the Senate floor — giving GOP leaders some hope that the unpredictable Virginian could buck his party in the end and block the bill" (Raju, 12/14).

14 Dec 2009

ZYPREXA RELPREVV approved by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ZYPREXA RELPREVV (olanzapine) For Extended Release Injectable Suspension for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults, Eli Lilly and Company announced today.

14 Dec 2009

FDA grants EUA for DxNA’s 2009 H1N1 influenza virus diagnostic test

DxNA announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its 2009 H1N1 influenza virus diagnostic test for use in DxNA's GeneSTAT(TM) detection platform.

14 Dec 2009

Study supports the use of SinoFresh Nasal Spray to prevent and decrease H1N1 virus

SinoFresh HealthCare Products, Inc. announced the recent successful initial pilot animal study of the SinoFresh Nasal Spray product for use in preventing and decreasing the severity of H1N1 ("swine flu") virus.

14 Dec 2009

Heart attacks peak during winter months, finds research

Research has found that heart attacks peak during the winter months, and the prevailing hypothesis has been that cold temperatures stress the heart. But in 2004, researchers analyzed 12 years of Los Angeles County death certificates and found that heart attack deaths also rise in the balmy Los Angeles winters.

14 Dec 2009

National Vaccine Plan aims to protect Americans from vaccine-preventable illnesses

While vaccines help prevent many diseases in the United States, we lack immunization protection against several serious illnesses, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine that identifies priority areas for updating the National Vaccine Plan.

14 Dec 2009

Cubist Pharmaceuticals signs definitive agreement to acquire Calixa Therapeutics

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a leading acute care therapeutics company, announced today the signing of a definitive agreement under which Cubist has agreed to acquire privately held Calixa Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel antibiotics that address the expanding problem of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative pathogens.

14 Dec 2009

Scientists discover five genetic variants associated with lung disease

Scientists have discovered five genetic variants that are associated with the health of the human lung. The research by an international consortium of 96 scientists from 63 centres in Europe and Australia sheds new light on the molecular basis of lung diseases.

14 Dec 2009

Obese patients loosing moderate amount of weight improve their cardiovascular health, says study

Obese patients who lost a moderate amount of weight by eating less and exercising more improved their cardiovascular health, says a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

14 Dec 2009

Clinical trial of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine

HIV-infected adults currently are being recruited to participate in a clinical trial of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine. The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health, will enroll approximately 240 men and women between the ages of 18 and 64.

13 Dec 2009

About 47M infected, 10,000 dead from H1N1 in U.S., CDC says

U.S. health officials on Thursday announced nearly 10,000 people in the U.S. had died from H1N1 (swine flu) since the virus was first reported in April, the New York Times reports.

11 Dec 2009

HHS: Current research efforts and developments in influenza vaccine technologies

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will host a three-hour educational program for the media to learn more about ongoing government research efforts to develop and apply new technologies in the making of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines.

11 Dec 2009

Pfizer's Prevenar 13 granted European marketing authorization

The European Commission has granted Pfizer Inc. a European marketing authorization for its pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13 (Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine [13-valent, adsorbed]). Prevenar 13 is indicated for active immunization for the prevention of invasive disease, pneumonia, and acute otitis media caused by 13 Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in infants and children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age. Invasive pneumococcal disease includes sepsis, meningitis, bacteremia, bacteremic pneumonia, and empyema.

11 Dec 2009

NCKUH and NHRI sponsor virology lab in Vietnam Children’s Hospital

A Virology Lab in Children’s Hospital No. 1 (CH1), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, sponsored by National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH) and National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) in Taiwan was launched on November 11th, 2009.

11 Dec 2009

HSMR helps identify sepsis as an area of concern for Canadian hospitals

A new study shows that in 2008-2009 more than 9,300 patients died of sepsis, a condition resulting from the body's response to severe infection, in Canadian hospitals outside Quebec.

11 Dec 2009