http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. In the summer of 1968, a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong Kong. This strain, known as H3N2, spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-influenza-viruses-circulating-pigs-birds.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 10 May 2013 16:32:19 EST news287422322 Scientists said Wednesday that flu infections were rising among pigs raised for slaughter on farms in south and southeastern China, also plagued by bird flu. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-flu-infections-chinese-pigs.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 07 May 2013 19:20:26 EST news287173219 Seasonal epidemics of influenza result in nearly 36,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Current vaccines against the influenza virus elicit an antibody response specific for proteins on the outside of the virus, specifically the hemagglutinin (HA) protein. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-two-pronged-immune-cell-approach-universal.html Medical research Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:00:05 EST news282498498 (Medical Xpress)—This year's unusually long and rocky flu season would be nothing compared to the pandemic that could occur if bird flu became highly contagious among humans, which is why UCLA researchers and their colleagues are creating new ways to predict where an outbreak could emerge. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-hotspots-future-flu-outbreaks.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:40:37 EST news282469229 (HealthDay)—Mild winters where few people catch the flu tend to be followed by serious flu outbreaks the next year, a new study finds, suggesting that global warming could mean harsher flu seasons ahead. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-climate-worse-flu-seasons.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:30:01 EST news278938190 (HealthDay)—Forty-eight states are now reporting widespread flu activity, up from 47 last week, U.S. health officials reported Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-states-flu-children-dead-cdc.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:00:01 EST news277736466 Health officials say flu season is off to its earliest start in nearly 10 years—and it could be a bad one. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-flu-season-early-bad-cdc.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:44:38 EST news273775468 (HealthDay)—Flu activity in the United States remains at low levels, federal health officials said Thursday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-flu-cdc.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:20:01 EST news268581332 With flu season around the corner, getting a seasonal vaccine might be one of the best ways to prevent people from getting sick. These vaccines only work, however, if their developers have accurately predicted which strains of the virus are likely to be active in the coming season because vaccines must be developed in advance of the upcoming flu season. Recently, a team of scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom have improved the prediction methods used to determine which strains of the flu virus to include in the current season's vaccine. The research describing this advance is published in the October 2012 issue of Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-evolutionary-analysis-ability-flu.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:42:24 EST news268303333 (Medical Xpress)—When you are hit with the flu, you know it immediately—fever, chills, sore throat, aching muscles, fatigue. This is your body mounting an immune response to the invading virus. But less is known about what is happening on the molecular level. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-scientists-ways-influenza-virus-host.html Medical research Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:00:01 EST news264945204 IBM scientists are collaborating with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) to further standardize the exchange and use of public health information to improve healthcare quality and coordination of care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-enable-real-time-health-cases.html Other Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:01:14 EST news264319141 (Medical Xpress) -- Scientists studying flu vaccines have identified ways to overcome an obstacle called "original antigenic sin," which can impair immune responses to new flu strains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-flu-vaccine.html Immunology Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:20:03 EST news264061178 Eight million chickens have so far been slaughtered in Mexico and 66 million more were vaccinated in a bid to contain a bird flu outbreak in the west of the country, authorities said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-mexico-mn-chickens-bird-flu.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 08 Aug 2012 03:43:56 EST news263616229 Not only does the type of flu virus affect a patient's outcome, but a new research report appearing in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that the number of viruses involved in the initial infection may be important too. Scientists from Canada found that when mice were infected by relatively high concentrations of the flu virus, they not only developed immunity against the virus that infected them, but this also promoted the generation of a type of immune cell in the lungs poised to rapidly react against infections with other strains of the flu, as well. Mice that were infected with a relatively low concentration of the virus developed weaker immunity against the strain that infected them, did not build up this crucial population of immune cells in the lungs, and showed only delayed immunity toward other flu strains. This discovery could pave the way for new prophylactic strategies to fight flu infections and provides a novel basis for vaccine design. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-flu-immunity-affected-viruses-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:56:40 EST news260099787 It might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature, new research has found. The findings, from research led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge, were published today, 22 June in the journal Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-avian-flu-viruses-transmissible-humans.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:02:47 EST news259504979 The pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccine can generate antibodies in vaccinated individuals not only against the H1N1 virus, but also against other influenza virus strains including H5N1 and H3N2. This discovery adds an important new dimension to the finding last year that people infected with pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus produced high levels of antibodies that were broadly cross-reactive against a variety of flu strains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-pandemic-h1n1-vaccination-antibodies-multiple.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:46 EST news256815108 (Medical Xpress) -- Most people know that one of the greatest threats to mankind is a pandemic. As the human population has grown over the years, so too has the threat from diseases that are capable of wiping out huge numbers of people in one fell stroke. And of the types of pandemics that are most likely to occur, most would agree that it would likely be tied to influenza. Yet, despite the very real possibility that a strain could develop almost anywhere in the world at any time; one that could spread very quickly across the planet due to international travel, relatively little is being done to prevent it from happening. Right now today, we are all at risk due to the possibility of a strain developing that would be as lethal as the variant that killed so many during the first World War, and that could spread just as quickly, or worse. Because of this, scientists from across the globe have contributed to commentaries and editorials describing the current state of flu data collection efforts and how the process might be improved. All of which have been published in the journal Nature. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-lack-worldwide-infrastructure-flu-variants.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:10:31 EST news252223789 While some scientists report engineering a super virulent strain of the H5N1 influenza virus, which could potentially wipe out a significant percentage of the human population, another group of researchers from the United Kingdom now reports a discovery that may one day help mitigate the deadly effects of all flu strains. This report, appearing in the March 2012 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, describes findings that may help prevent deaths from severe flu outbreaks, especially from seemingly healthy young people. Specifically, the researchers found that immune cells called, "natural killer T cells," may reduce the overwhelming numbers of another type of immune cell, called "inflammatory monocytes," which when present in large numbers, lead to lung injury at the end stage of severe flu infection. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-lung-injury-severe-flu.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:52:43 EST news249735151 (AP) -- For the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-bird-flu-pig-human-unclear.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:37:46 EST news249579454 (AP) -- Mexico's federal health secretary says swine flu cases in January have surpassed the number for all of 2011, a year when the virus barely appeared worldwide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-mexico-health-sec-swine-flu.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:41:50 EST news247246900 The influenza virus remains a worldwide threat to humans, causing an average of 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations each year in the United States alone. As health care professionals prepare for another flu season, a University of Missouri scientist is studying how two enzymes could be used to stop the virus in its tracks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-mu-scientist-eyeing-enzymes-flu.html Medical research Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:21:38 EST news240747681 (AP) -- It's flu vaccine time again - and some lucky shot-seekers will find that the needle has shrunk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-flu-shots-tiny-needle.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:34:28 EST news234441236 Some vaccines are once-in-a-lifetime; others need a booster shot or two to maintain their potency. And then there's the flu vaccine, which only lasts a year. Strains of influenza virus change so much from year-to-year that new vaccines must be developed annually to target the strains of virus that are most likely to cause illness. But Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists have now discovered a human antibody that recognizes many different flu strains. Understanding more about this antibody may help scientists design a longer-lasting vaccine against the influenza virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-newly-antibody-strains-flu-virus.html Medical research Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:10:05 EST news232030522 UC Irvine researchers have found a new approach to the creation of customized therapies for virulent flu strains that resist current antiviral drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-antiviral-resistance-influenza.html Medical research Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:40:41 EST news229696828 Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new report from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell. They describe an antibody that, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-universal-flu-vaccine-closer-discovery.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:03 EST news229265919