epidemic

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

War on TB Has Backfired: Experts

WHO slow to tackle drug-resistant TB

(Newser) - For years, the World Health Organization has pushed countries to battle tuberculosis by treating those patients who could be most easily cured. The strategy has a major flaw: It's allowed drug-resistant forms of the disease to flourish, experts say. Now the WHO is reworking its strategy—but much damage...

America's Worst Airport for Spreading Disease Is ...

... New York's JFK, scientists say

(Newser) - Which US airport is most likely to spread an infectious disease during an epidemic? This won't surprise New Yorkers: It's JFK. But its top ranking has nothing to do with dirtiness, reports the New York Daily News . MIT scientists who analyzed 40 of the biggest US airports compared...

Whooping Cough Outbreak Worst in 50 Years

Adults should get booster shots, CDC says

(Newser) - The US is facing its worst epidemic of whooping cough since the 1950s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends that adults—especially pregnant women and those who spend time around children—get booster shots. Some 18,000 cases of the highly infectious disease have been...

Florida Kept Lid on Worst TB Outbreak in Decades

Strain linked to 13 deaths and 99 cases: Palm Beach Post

(Newser) - Florida is in the midst of the worst tuberculosis outbreak the CDC has seen in two decades—and the Jacksonville outbreak was largely hidden from the public, finds the Palm Beach Post in a disturbing report. The outbreak apparently originated in 2008, when a schizophrenic patient came down with TB...

Baby Boomer? Feds Say Get Tested for Hepatitis C

Disease can lurk in the body for decades

(Newser) - An epidemic of hepatitis C is afflicting the baby boomer generation, and federal authorities will roll out a campaign this year urging everyone born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested, reports the Los Angeles Times . Roughly 75% of the estimated 3.2 million people infected are boomers, many of...

This Might Be a Bad Summer for Lyme Disease

Big crop of acorns, mice signal potential trouble

(Newser) - A surge in cases of Lyme disease could be hiding in the forest. Scientists say the northeastern US might be staring at "the worst year yet" for the bacterial illness, reports Wired . The reason starts with acorns: In 2010, there was a huge crop of them, which led to...

Contagion : It&#39;s Not Just Fiction
 Contagion: 
 It's Not Just 
 Fiction 
OPINION
Sep 12, 2011 12:34 PM CDT

Contagion: It's Not Just Fiction

Premise 'will almost certainly occur,' writes Dr. Larry Madoff

(Newser) - Bad news for those of you, who after seeing Contagion , reminded yourself comfortingly, “It was only a movie:" According to one epidemiologist, the frightening premise put forth in the film “will almost certainly occur.” The plot deals with a virus breaking out of its niche and...

Expert: UN Brought Cholera to Haiti

Nepalese base blamed for epidemic

(Newser) - A French researcher has reached the same conclusion about the Haitian cholera outbreak as rioters did: United Nations peacekeepers are the likely source. The expert—sent by the French government to help Haiti investigate the epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people—believes the disease probably spread from...

Little Kids Still Need 2 Swine Flu Shots

Older kids, like adults, get effective H1N1 inoculation from just 1 dose

(Newser) - Kids over age 9 can safely join adults in receiving just one shot of swine flu vaccine, the Washington Post reports. A test of 650 subjects showed 76% of children between 10 and 17 had a response to a vaccine produced by Sanofi Pasteur, and it was strong enough that...

Pregnant Women Win Priority for Swine Flu Vaccine

(Newser) - Pregnant women and people who care for infants will be first in line for the swine flu vaccine this fall, the Washington Post reports. Infants, children and young adults under 24, chronically ill adults aged 25 to 64, and health care workers are the other top priority groups under guidelines...

WHO Declares Swine Flu Pandemic
 WHO Declares 
 Swine Flu Pandemic 
UPDATED
Jun 11, 2009 10:20 AM CDT

WHO Declares Swine Flu Pandemic

H1N1 has spread to 74 countries, but may be milder than first thought

(Newser) - The World Health Organization has declared the first influenza pandemic since 1968, Reuters reports. Although the current outbreak has caused mostly mild cases of the illness, today's official declaration that the outbreak has hit phase 6, the highest level, means heightened prevention measures in 193 countries. The designation refers to...

China Springs Nagin After Swine Flu Scare

Quarantine lifted, New Orleans mayor, wife leave Shanghai

(Newser) - Ray Nagin prepared to leave Shanghai today after four days in quarantine imposed after possible exposure to the swine flu virus. The New Orleans mayor, his wife, and a member of their security detail had been in a hotel-turned-clinic since learning that a fellow passenger on their flight from Newark...

Binge Drinking Could Fuel Dementia 'Epidemic'

Up to a quarter of UK dementia cases may be booze-linked

(Newser) - It’s no secret that drinking kills brain cells—but doctors in Britain now fear an “epidemic” of brain damage from binge drinking, the Guardian reports. Up to a quarter of dementia cases in the UK may be brought on by heavy drinking, they say, noting that some people...

US May Offer 3 Flu Shots in Fall

(Newser) - Americans may be getting not one but three flu shots this fall, the Washington Post reports. One would be for the seasonal flu and the other two would be for swine flu. The plan is unprecedented—health officials have never asked people to get more than one flu vaccine in...

US Sees 2nd Flu Death; CDC Eases Up on Schools

(Newser) - Texas health officials said today that a US woman who lived near the Mexico border has died from swine flu—the second death in the nation and first of a US resident, USA Today reports. The news, however, comes amid continued confidence that the H1N1 virus remains relatively mild here,...

Mexico Protests Chinese Quarantine of 70 Travelers

Quarantines in China of Mexicans prompt speech by Calderon

(Newser) - Mexico is sending a charter plane to China today to rescue more than 70 Mexican travelers who have been quarantined by the Chinese government regardless of whether they had symptoms of the swine flu. President Felipe Calderon protested what he called "repressive and discriminatory measures," AP reports. Other...

Flu Carries Lessons for Bioterror Fight
 Flu Carries Lessons 
 for Bioterror Fight 

OPINION
Apr 30, 2009 1:11 PM CDT

Flu Carries Lessons for Bioterror Fight

(Newser) - The H1N1 flu outbreak spotlights a public-health infrastructure ill suited to respond to a pandemic or its close cousin, a bioterror attack, D.A. Henderson writes for Newsweek. We must “sharpen our health-care response. Rapid diagnosis and response are critical,” he writes. The “interconnected world we live...

Obama Lacks Health Team as Swine Flu Spreads
Obama Lacks Health Team
as Swine Flu Spreads
analysis
Apr 27, 2009 1:53 AM CDT

Obama Lacks Health Team as Swine Flu Spreads

Terrorism pros handle health crisis

(Newser) - With key health posts in the Obama administration still vacant, the swine flu outbreak is being handled by a counter-terrorism specialist and a former governor, Politico reports. The administration still lacks a surgeon general and chiefs for the Food and Drug Administraion and Centers for Disease Control, and needs to...

Swine Flu Fears Prompt Quarantine Plans, Pork Bans

(Newser) - Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu today as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level. Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened...

Mexico Grapples With Flu as Pandemic Fears Fly

(Newser) - Schools and museums are closed, sold-out soccer games are being played in empty stadiums, and health workers are ordering sickly passengers off subways and buses. At nightclubs, teenagers are dancing with surgical masks on. Mexico City is grappling with what authorities fear is ground zero for a global epidemic of...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser