NewsTrust - Infectious Diseases - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

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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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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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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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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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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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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5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Brian Vastag - Apr. 09 (Special Report) - In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

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Scientists Hack Cellphone to Analyze Blood, Detect Disease, Help Developing Nations

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Dave Bullock - Dec. 22 (News Report) - A new MacGyver-esque cellphone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on the planet. Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA have modded a cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of detecting HIV, malaria and other illnesses.

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More indigenous Guatemalans turn to sex work, stoking HIV fears

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - Nov. 28 (News Report) - ''They've come here more and more because they can earn four, five, even 10 times what they could make in other jobs,'' said Dr. Marco García, who runs a nearby clinic offering free HIV/AIDS tests and treatment. The clinic is treating more indigenous women than ever, he said. In the waiting room, a handful of Maya women, small children in tow, waited for medical treatment on a recent morning. ``They realize the risks of contracting diseases, but prostitution pays.''

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The Hardest Places in the World to Find a Bathroom

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - Aug. 14 (Special Report) - Not only does Eritrea rank worst in Africa, but it ranks worst in the world in terms of the percentage of people without access to improved sanitation facilities--i.e. those that separate excreta from human contact, and that aren't shared between households. If you travel in the countryside, expect to go in the open, the way 95 percent of the rural population does. The lack of sanitation is exacerbated by many factors: poverty, drought (which keeps flush toilets from operating), and a 1998-2000 border war that left 1.2 million of the county's 3.7 million population at the time internally displaced. Unsurprisingly, diarrhea is a leading cause of illness among children under 5.

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How Solid is the Anthrax Evidence?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Amanda Ripley, Massimo Calabresi - Aug. 05 (News Analysis) - While the FBI waits to formally release its evidence against Bruce E. Ivins, the microbiologist it claims to have linked to the anthrax mailings seven years ago who killed himself on July 29, the public is getting a sneak peek -- by way of federal leaks to the media. The leaks are piling up almost too fast to keep track of.

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Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Larry Margasak - Jul. 25 (News Report) - Tommy Thompson, who was health secretary during the industry's lobbying campaign, acknowledged that a more robust food-tracking system - opposed by business groups as too expensive - could have helped stem the current illnesses and business losses.

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A hot (pepper) lead in hunt for salmonella source

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Lauran Neergaard - Jul. 24 (Special Report) - It was a hot lead for detectives on a cold case. People suddenly were getting salmonella at a Minnesota restaurant more than 1,000 miles from the center of the nation's outbreak.

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Study links IMF loans to tuberculosis

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Michael Kahn - Jul. 21 (News Report) - The researchers used a statistical model to compare tuberculosis rates for 21 post-Communist countries along with the timing and length of IMF loans to other lending programmes. Even when considering population changes, war, inflation and other factors that can lead to new cases, the researchers found that rising TB rates correlated closely to when IMF funding began. The size of a loan and length of time a country participated were also important, according to the study that analysed IMF programmes in the region and TB rates between 1991 and 2000.

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