Influenza News and Research

Latest Influenza News and Research

Powdered form of anthrax vaccine could eliminate needle injections

Researchers have developed a powdered form of an anthrax vaccine that could potentially be inhaled through the nose and eliminate the need for needle injections.

26 Aug 2004

Australian research giant begins trial of avian influenza vaccine

The trial vaccine utilises Imugene Limited's platform adenoviral vector technology to deliver the necessary genetic material to stimulate the birds' immune responses.

25 Aug 2004

Hong Kong suspends bird and poultry imports from Malaysia, after deadly H5 avian influenza was found

The Hong Kong Government has suspended the import of live birds and poultry meat from Malaysia, after a strain of the deadly H5 avian influenza was found in Kelantan.

20 Aug 2004

Contract for the production of an investigational vaccine based on an H9N2 strain of avian influenza virus

In 1999 and 2003, an H9N2 influenza strain caused illness in three people in Hong Kong. Scientists are concerned about H9N2 and other emerging types of avian influenza viruses because as they spread—most commonly through poultry—they continually mutate, increasing chances that they may infect humans, evade the body’s immune response and become more lethal.

17 Aug 2004

Drug company fights to keep toxin in vaccines

The UK announced Saturday they will remove the mercury preservative Thimerosal from their vaccines. The news comes days after an LA Times article reported that Aventis-Pasteur, a pharmaceutical giant, is pushing to keep the toxin in U.S. vaccines.

13 Aug 2004

Three recent deaths in Viet Nam were caused by infection with avian influenza

The Ministry of Health in Viet Nam has informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that three recent deaths from influenza-like illness in Viet Nam were caused by infection with avian influenza. These are the first officially reported cases of avian influenza in Viet Nam since late February.

13 Aug 2004

Gravity model applicable to disease spread

Tracking the spread of new or re-emergent diseases such as SARS or smallpox is essential in controlling disease epidemics, but horse-and-buggy concepts of how diseases spread have been supplanted by 21st-century realities.

9 Aug 2004

Mothers who catch a flu during pregnancy may increase the risk of their child developing schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime — more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year.

3 Aug 2004

Aventis ships its influenza vaccine, Fluzone

Aventis began to ship its influenza vaccine (Fluzone(R), Influenza Virus Vaccine) today, meeting the company's goal to provide Fluzone vaccine to customers to allow health-care providers to plan successful immunization programs for the upcoming influenza season.

3 Aug 2004

Rapid detection of anthrax inhalation

Authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET outline progress in the ability to rapidly detect anthrax inhalation in the event of bioterrorist attacks.

29 Jul 2004

Patent pending botanical extract, V38-AMF-1, completely inhibits bird flu (H5N1) and Fujian Flu

PRB Pharmaceuticals and Lee's Pharmaceuticals have announced the discovery that PRB'S patent pending botanical extract, V38-AMF-1, completely inhibits bird flu (H5N1) and Fujian Flu (H3N2) infections in vitro.

29 Jul 2004

Computer modeling method for mapping the evolution of the influenza virus

A University of California scientist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with collaborators from the University of Cambridge (England) and the World Health Organization National Influenza Center at Erasmus Medical Center, (Rotterdam, Netherlands) have developed a computer modeling method for mapping the evolution of the influenza virus.

21 Jul 2004

Culling wild birds won't help battle agianst H5N1 avian influenza strain

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations health agency has warned of the possible emergence of an avian influenza strain capable of sparking a deadly global human pandemic and has also urged countries in Asia not to cull wild birds in response to recent outbreaks of avian influenza in China, Thailand and Viet Nam.

19 Jul 2004

Avian influenza virus is still present in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam

New outbreaks of the avian influenza virus H5N1 in China, Thailand and Viet Nam confirm that the virus is still endemic in the region, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement yesterday.

10 Jul 2004

Emerging infectious diseases will continue to confront society in unpredictable ways as long as humans and microbes co-exist

Emerging infectious diseases, which have shaped the course of humanity and caused incalculable suffering and death, will continue to confront society in unpredictable ways as long as humans and microbes co-exist

9 Jul 2004

Avian influenza virus in East Asia arose through a series of genetic reassortment events with other viruses

An avian influenza virus that has caused three major outbreaks among poultry and killed several people in East Asia over the past seven years arose through a series of genetic reassortment events with other viruses.

9 Jul 2004

As humans alter land, infectious diseases follow

As people remake the world's landscapes, cutting forests, draining wetlands, building roads and dams, and pushing the margins of cities ever outward, infectious diseases are gaining new toeholds, cropping up in new places and new hosts, and posing an ever-increasing risk to human and animal health.

5 Jul 2004