avian flu

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FDA OKs High-Speed Flu Test
 FDA OKs High-Speed Flu Test 
Oct 1, 2008 1:50 AM CDT

FDA OKs High-Speed Flu Test

Technique will ID new strains in crucial early warning system

(Newser) - A new genetic test for the flu virus, which slashes the time it takes to identify new strains from 4 days to 4 hours, has been approved by the FDA. The test will play a key role in an early warning system if the US is ever struck by a...

1918 Flu Survivors Still Have Killer Antibodies

Findings help fight against avian flu

(Newser) - The flu pandemic that killed up to 100 million people in 1918 left survivors with a strong set of antibodies—strong enough to still be viable today, Reuters reports. Mice given survivor antibodies managed to fight off the deadly flu when they were infected with the virus extracted from exhumed...

Brits Warn of Devastating Pandemic

World ill-prepared for massive outbreak

(Newser) - The world is in danger of losing up to 50 million people to an "inevitable" flu pandemic, and global response agencies aren't ready for such a test, the British government warns. A report rates early-warning systems as "poorly coordinated" and calls for an overhaul of the World Health...

Phone Data Used to Map Human Activity

Study, outside US, finds ingrained habits, raises privacy issues

(Newser) - Researchers using mobile-phone data to study patterns of human movement find that we're quite creatures of habit, the BBC reports. The 100,000 randomly selected subjects—outside the US, where such tracking would be illegal, the AP notes—remained mostly in the same small area, traveling less than 6½ miles...

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting
 Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting 
May 6, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting

Experts fear spread of disease, entrenched in avian population, to humans

(Newser) - The danger of a worldwide bird flu epidemic is growing as the virus becomes established in the avian population, Reuters reports. World Health Organization experts today urged all nations to prepare in case the H5N1 virus mutates into a form easily transferable between humans. In birds, the strain has spread...

S. Korea Culls 3M Birds in Flu Fight

Nation on alert as troops sent in to slaughter poultry

(Newser) - South Korea has sent in soldiers to kill and bury birds as bird flu spreads rapidly throughout the country, Reuters reports. More than 3 million farm birds have been culled so far, but fresh cases continue to be reported and the disease is heading for the capital. The entire country...

Common Flu Exhibits Drug Resistance

Up to 10% of cases in West don't respond to Tamiflu treatment

(Newser) - A widespread strain of the influenza virus is proving to be resistant to a common treatment, Time reports. The H1N1 virus, a subtype of influenza A (not to be confused with H5N1, the avian or bird flu) has shown rates of resistance of up to 10% in Europe, Canada, and...

Flu Shot May Help Fight Off Bird Flu: Study

Vaccinated patients more likely to have immune response to deadly H5N1 virus

(Newser) - A regular flu shot may offer at least some protection against the bird flu, a new study finds. Researchers tested the blood of 42 volunteers who'd recently gotten flu vaccines, exposing it to the deadly H5N1 avian flu, and found that in some of them, the immune system recognized the...

Son May Have Passed Bird Flu to Father

Chinese case prompts fears of strain spreading between humans

(Newser) - A man in China was diagnosed with the deadly bird flu virus a day after his 24-year-old son died from the disease, raising fears of a strain that can pass from person to person, the Telegraph reports. Health officials don't know for sure if the father caught the virus from...

Indonesia Still Won't Send WHO Bird Flu Samples

Country demands guarantee any future vaccination will be affordable

(Newser) - Indonesia won't send avian flu specimens to the World Heath Organization, it said today, continuing a months-long stalemate over assurances that resulting vaccines will be cheap enough for the developing world. The country’s health minister had been in Geneva to rebuild WHO’s virus-sharing system, the AP reports.

UK Bird Flu Cull Widens to 22K
UK Bird Flu Cull Widens to 22K 
Nov 14, 2007 12:43 PM CST

UK Bird Flu Cull Widens to 22K

Culling seen as precautionary; no sign of disease spreading

(Newser) - Some 22,000 more birds are being killed in Britain after an outbreak of bird flu on a turkey farm in Suffolk, northeast of London. The cull has been extended to four nearby sites, although the disease has only been detected at the first farm. "This is a precautionary...

Deadly Bird Flu ID'd on UK Farm
Deadly Bird Flu ID'd on UK Farm
Nov 13, 2007 4:57 PM CST

Deadly Bird Flu ID'd on UK Farm

Human-transmissible H5N1 strain detected; 6,000 birds killed as precaution

(Newser) - The avian flu that decimated a British turkey farm is the dangerous H5N1 strain, which can spread to humans. Authorities are taking extreme precautions, reports the Telegraph, slaughtering about 6,000 birds and forbidding the transportation of poultry within a 6-mile "surveillance zone.” The H5N1 strain has killed...

Next Up, Locusts: Bird Flu Closes In on Humans

Latest strain may be more dangerous to people

(Newser) - A new mutation of bird flu virus H5N1 allows it to survive in humans, which have cooler body temperatures than birds. The virus doesn’t currently transmit between humans, but the ability to survive in our respiratory tract could start an epidemic, researchers warn. "I don't like to scare...

Scientists Devise 30-Minute Bird Flu Test

Could be critical in containing outbreak among humans

(Newser) - Researchers have developed a test that can identify bird flu in just 28 minutes, according to a study published this month in Nature Medicine. If bird flu mutates to a form readily passed among humans, rapid testing could be critical in identifying and containing an outbreak in its early stages....

Top 10 Incurable Diseases
Top 10 Incurable Diseases
Sep 14, 2007 10:21 AM CDT

Top 10 Incurable Diseases

Medicine marches on, leaving behind some ailments that defy understanding

(Newser) - Doctors have successfully performed a face transplant, but the cure for the common cold still eludes them. LiveScience ponders the diseases that got away.
  1. AIDS
  2. Alzheimer's disease
  3. The common cold

World on Brink of New Epidemic: WHO
World on Brink of New Epidemic: WHO
Aug 23, 2007 3:50 AM CDT

World on Brink of New Epidemic: WHO

Global cooperation is crucial to prevent new outbreak, report concludes

(Newser) - A new global epidemic is likely on the horizon with fresh diseases cropping up at a record pace and billions of air travelers in motion to spread an illness with alarming speed, the World Health Organization warned yesterday. The AIDS or Ebola of tomorrow could be just around the corner...

Scientists Find Lead in Bird Flu Vaccine

Antibodies from survivors have been effective in curing infected mice

(Newser) - In the first break in the deadly bird flu epidemic, an international team of researchers using antibodies from survivors of the Vietnamese strain of the disease were able to prevent it from developing in mice, and to neutralize those already infected.

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