Although up to 500,000 people world-wide die of severe influenza each year, there has been no clear evidence about who is susceptible for influenza complications and it may not be who people think, says a study from McMaster University. This is important because issues during past influenza...
Approximately 13 million illnesses and over 110,00 hospitalizations may have been averted by the flu vaccine over the last 6 years in the U.S, according to calculations published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Deliana Kostova and colleagues from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and...
Spit. Drool. Dribble. Saliva is not normally a topic of polite conversation, but it may be the key to explaining the age and sex bias exhibited by influenza and other diseases, according to a new study. Published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, it provides new insights into why older...
Collaborating scientists from Nationwide Children's Hospital, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified an important mechanism for stimulating protective immune responses following seasonal influenza vaccinations. The study was published in...
Last winter, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Erasmus University (Netherlands) shocked the world by announcing they had developed strains of H5N1 influenza that could easily pass between mammals (ferrets). In nature, H5N1 is extremely lethal (kills nearly 60% of its human cases)...
In April 2009, the world took notice as reports surfaced of a virus in Mexico that had mutated from pigs and was being passed from human to human. The H1N1 "swine flu," as the virus was named, circulated worldwide, killing more than 18,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. The...
A natural lipid in the fluid lining the lungs inhibits influenza infections in both cell cultures and mouse models, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. These findings, combined with previous studies demonstrating effectiveness against respiratory syncytial virus, suggest that the...
In the new movie "Contagion," fictional health experts scramble to get ahead of a flu-like pandemic as a drug-resistant virus quickly spreads, killing millions of people within days after they contract the illness. Although the film isn't based entirely on reality, it's not exactly science...
Almost a quarter million people are hospitalized with the flu every year, and an estimated 3,000 to 49,000 die, making the flu one of the chief causes of preventable death in the USA. However, a universal flu vaccine that protects against all strains may be within reach in the next five years...
Using weekly influenza surveillance data from the US CDC, Edward Goldstein and colleagues develop a statistical method to predict the sizes of epidemics caused by seasonal influenza strains. This method could inform decisions about the most appropriate vaccines or drugs needed early in the...
Infants born to mothers who received the influenza (flu) vaccine while pregnant are nearly 50 percent less likely to be hospitalized for the flu than infants born to mothers who did not receive the vaccine while pregnant, according to a new collaborative study by researchers at Wake Forest...
Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) indicate that levels of seasonal flu are increasing across the UK. Vaccine uptake among those in 'at risk' groups remains low with just 40 per cent of such people under 65 taking up the offer of vaccination. Everyone over the age of 65 is...
Deerfield, Ill., USA, and Osaka and Tokyo, Japan, December 02, 2010 - Baxter International Inc. (Headquarters: Illinois, USA) ("Baxter") and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Headquarters: Osaka, Japan) ("Takeda") today announced that the parties have completed a Development, License and...
The Pennsylvania Department of Health will mark National Influenza Immunization Week by offering free public influenza vaccination clinics on Dec. 9, 10, and 11 in communities statewide. "Pennsylvania had a great opportunity to receive additional influenza vaccine," said acting Secretary of...
Nanotrope, Inc. announced that it has been issued United States patent #7,829,272 covering its ground-breaking diagnostic test for influenza and other viral infections. The patent describes Nanotrope's cellular mimic technology that creates an artificial "cell" engineered with specific membrane...
Beating the flu has always been tough, but it has gotten even more difficult in recent years. Two of the four antiviral drugs used to treat a nasty case of the influenza A virus no longer work. Fortunately, scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Institute of Molecular...
Public Health Minister, Anne Milton MP, has officially opened the Health Protection Agency's new £12m Influenza Resource Centre and UK Stem Cell Bank, at the agency's National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) in Hertfordshire. The new laboratory development is a unique...
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced that Inovio Pharmaceuticals and the University of Pennsylvania have received a grant of $3.1 million from the National Institutes...
Recognizing the important role vaccination of health care workers plays in a comprehensive seasonal influenza prevention plan, the American Nurses Association (ANA) continues to urge all registered nurses to get vaccinated every year to protect themselves, their families, and the patients they...
Switzerland's Cytos Biotechnology and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have jointly announced their first collaboration on a virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine. This partnership, which involves academic and clinical partners across Singapore, aims at research...