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Global jump in swine flu deaths

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Oct. 31 (News Report) - The number of swine flu deaths reported worldwide has jumped by more than 700 in a week, latest World Health Organization figures reveal.

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L.A. County free H1N1 vaccine clinics overwhelmed

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Molly Hennessy-Fiske - Oct. 28 (News Report) - Los Angeles County's free H1N1 flu clinics opened last week amid public health officials' promises to aggressively vaccinate people at highest risk, especially the uninsured. Instead, overwhelmed clinic staff began vaccinating many people who were not supposed to be first in line for protection, officials said Tuesday.

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Anxious Crowds Meet Ad Hoc Swine Flu Police

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jennifer Steinhauer - Oct. 28 (News Report) - The top public health official in Los Angeles County stood at a swine flu vaccination site in Compton, Calif., on Tuesday and gently told elderly residents that they really ought to go home.

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Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By JACKIE CALMES, DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. - Oct. 25 (News Report) - President Obama’s declaration allows hospitals and local governments to speedily set up alternate sites and procedures if needed to handle any surge of patients.

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A new side effect of H1N1 virus: exaggeration

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Robert Farley - Oct. 22 (News Analysis) - Public health officials making the pitch for the H1N1 vaccine to a wary public are having to overcome an unprecedented torrent of misinformation. PolitiFact looked into several of the claims making the rounds in chain e-mails and from political talk show hosts.

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Flu Story: A Pregnant Woman’s Ordeal

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. - Oct. 20 (News Report) - Pregnant women are particularly susceptible because they are in the younger age group most likely to catch this new virus, while those over 50 who have had more flus rarely catch it. Moreover, pregnancy suppresses the immune system to protect the fetus, and the growing baby makes it harder for a mother to clear her lungs.

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Inoculation Misinformation

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Jess Henig - Oct. 19 (News Analysis) - Wild rumors are flying about the newly developed vaccine for pandemic influenza H1N1, also known as "swine flu." We’ve seen e-mails stating that the vaccine is tainted with antifreeze or Agent Orange, causes Gulf War syndrome, or has killed U.S. Navy sailors. One says the vaccine is an "evil depopulation scheme." The claims are nearly pure bunk, with only trace amounts of fact.

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Does the Flu Vaccine Matter?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Shannon Brownlee, Jeanne Lenzer - Oct. 15 (Special Report) - "What if flu vaccines do not protect people from dying—particularly the elderly, who account for 90 percent of deaths from seasonal flu? And what if the expensive antiviral drugs that the government has stockpiled over the past few years also have little, if any, power to reduce the number of people who die or are hospitalized?"

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Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Geographic - By Christine Dell'Amore - Oct. 09 (News Report) - Beware of the blob—this time, it's for real. As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says

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A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Marilynn Marchione, Michael Casey - Sep. 24 (News Report) - For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible. The World Health Organization and the U.N. agency UNAIDS said the results "instilled new hope" in the field of HIV vaccine research, although researchers say it likely is many years before a vaccine might be available.

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How Foreclosures Breed Mosquitoes

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

thebigmoney.com - By Paul Smalera, Win Rosenfeld - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - Filmmakers Andrew and Leslie Cockburn discuss a scene from their new documentary American Casino. The scene shows how a sea of abandoned swimming pools in California has become a mosquito Club Med.

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India Battles the Flu and Recession, Too

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Sandip Roy - Sep. 06 (Special Report) - In India, the media are struggling to find new angles to cover the H1N1 virus, which is quickly becoming a chronic front-page story. The Times of India published the photographs of random Indians and their ideas of fail-safe swine flu prevention tactics. One involved praying. Another involved raw partridge. Spritzing with anti-bacterial liquids is epidemic. NAM editor Sandip Roy reports from Bengaluru.

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Obama strikes note of unity at Mexico summit

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Sara Miller Llana - Aug. 10 (News Report) - At the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico today, the three heads of state reiterated their commitment to the pressing issues of the day, including security, economic recovery, climate change, and the mitigation of swine flu. But some of the most contentious issues remain unresolved, including the delay of antidrug funding to Mexico because of US concerns over human rights abuses s well as trade and immigration disagreements that have emerged between all three governments.

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Man dies from plague in China, 11 others infected

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Aug. 03 (Special Report) - BEIJING -- Thousands of people have been placed under quarantine in a town in northwest China after a man died of pneumonic plague and 11 others were confirmed infected with the deadly lung infection, health authorities said.

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Potent cancer drug hopes raised

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Jul. 21 (News Report) - A new way of making cancer cells die has been discovered by UK scientists, raising hopes of potent new treatments.

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Swine flu spreads in world; Mexico opens schools

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Alexandra Olson - May. 11 (News Report) - "A study published Monday in the journal Science estimated that Mexico alone may have had 23,000 cases by April 23, the day it announced the epidemic. The study estimates that swine flu kills between 0.4 percent and 1.4 percent of its victims, but lead author Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, said the data remains incomplete."

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Swine flu no worse than regular flu, Napolitano says

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By CNN's Karl Penhaul in Mexico City, John Vause in Beijing, Diana Magnay in Geneva, Pauline Choo in Hong Kong contributed to this report. - May. 04 (News Report) - The swine flu virus that has sparked fear and precautions worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, U.S. officials said Monday.

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Mexico shuts down to prevent spread of flu

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Ioan Grillo - May. 04 (News Report) - Nine days after Mexico discovered that it was the epicenter of a new strain of killer flu, the nation is in the midst of an obligatory five-day holiday to stop the disease spreading.

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Tracking Risk Perception of Swine Flu As It Unfolds

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Marcel Salathé - Apr. 30 (Research) - But while the virus spreads quickly, information about the virus spreads even faster than the virus itself. By now, almost everyone with access to a news source is aware of swine flu, and people are worried to different degrees and react in very different ways. My colleagues and I who study the spread of infectious diseases would like to know what people think about swine flu, how they feel about it, and how they will eventually react. To achieve this goal, we have created an easy online (and anonymous) survey, which I cordially invite you take. Let me give you some background info on why we believe this is important.

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Stimulus and Swine Flu: Where the Truth Lies

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - The story about Republicans cutting stimulus money to fight swine flu has spread like, well, a pandemic flu. But there’s much more to this story.

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Little Boy at the Center of a Viral Storm

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Joshua Partlow - Apr. 29 (Special Report) - One person who may have helped launch a rapidly spreading flu outbreak likes to draw hearts and flowers in the dirt outside his home. He likes to climb trees and give hugs and play with his soccer ball. And despite a persistent cough, he does not, he insists, feel sick.

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Mexico City shuts itself in amid swine flu fears

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Julie Watson - Apr. 29 (Special Report) - This city of 20 million people has shut itself in as authorities try to prevent the epidemic from spreading. But with no schools, no movie theaters and no cafes to while away the hours, many are already going stir crazy.

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A Swine Flu Primer

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talk Radio News Service - By Coffee Brown, MD - Apr. 29 (News Analysis) - Is swine flu the pandemic that we know is coming....this is the time to test all those plans and procedures. This is a chance to do a shake-out cruise. It won't be a waste of time, regardless of how it turns out.

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Men with infected scrotums less desirable to women!

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

researchilike.blogspot.com - By Srinivas Murthy - Apr. 25 (News Report) - Stating the obvious, but still nice to have the data. Ours being a shallow society, the 'marriageability' of somebody with a filarial hydrocele (only click if you're not eating your breakfast and you have a strong stomach) is probably not that high. The severe impact on sexual function, as well as the obvious cosmetic challenges, make them low on the list of potential suitors for young ladies.

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Plan Tries to Lower Malaria Drug Cost

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Donald G. McNeil - Apr. 17 (News Report) - A new campaign to save lives and prevent drug resistance by driving the price of the best malaria medicine down to as little as 20 cents was announced Friday by international health agencies and European governments.

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