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 The over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may also exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus, according to a team of French scientists. The finding, the result of a structure-based investigation, is published online ahead of print in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-pain-reliever-naproxen-anti-viral-flu.html Medications Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:44:02 EST news283095833 (HealthDay)—If the headlines are any indication, this year's flu season is turning out to be a whopper. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-severe-flu-season.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:50:01 EST news277565498 In the midst of an early flu season, public health officials are urging unvaccinated people to get a flu shot, as the best step they can take to protect both themselves and their families. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-effective-flu-shots-experts.html Medications Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:12:09 EST news277463521 (Medical Xpress)—Immunising people with vaccines that are quick and inexpensive to produce is the answer to preventing large-scale spread of infectious disease, Professor Anton Middelberg from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology says. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-viruses-cheap-vaccines-quickly.html Medical research Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:40:01 EST news271070630 Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis insisted early Thursday that its flu vaccines were safe despite a sales ban by Italy, Switzerland and Austria. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-novartis-insists-flu-vaccines-safe.html Medications Thu, 25 Oct 2012 04:09:23 EST news270356943 The genetic sequencing and reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus that killed 50 million people worldwide have advanced scientists' understanding of influenza biology and yielded important information on how to prevent and control future pandemics, according to a new commentary by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and several other institutions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-reconstructed-influenza-virus-yielded-key.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:17:07 EST news266584619 National Institutes of Health scientists have identified how a kind of immature immune cell responds to a part of influenza virus and have traced the path those cells take to generate antibodies that can neutralize a wide range of influenza virus strains. Study researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, were led by Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIAID's Vaccine Research Center. Their findings appear online in advance of print in Nature. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-broadly-neutralizing-antibodies-aid-universal.html Medical research Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:00:04 EST news265463638 Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is usually characterized by rapidly developing motor weakness and areflexia (the absence of reflexes). "The disease is thought to be autoimmune and triggered by a stimulus of external origin. In 1976-1977, an unusually high rate of GBS was identified in the United States following the administration of inactivated 'swine' influenza A(H1N1) vaccines. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that the evidence favored acceptance of a causal relationship between the 1976 swine influenza vaccines and GBS in adults. Studies of seasonal influenza vaccines administered in subsequent years have found small or no increased risk," according to background information in the article. "In a more recent assessment of epidemiologic studies on seasonal influenza vaccines, experimental studies in animals, and case reports in humans, the IOM Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines concluded that the evidence was inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-h1n1-vaccine-small-significant-guillain-barre.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:12:13 EST news261155511 College students' social networks influence their beliefs regarding the safety of influenza vaccines and decisions about vaccination, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-social-networks-flu-shot-decision.html Health Mon, 14 May 2012 09:24:42 EST news256206269 The H5N1 influenza has proven extraordinarily deadly. More than 50 percent of the 500 cases that have been documented since the virus first emerged in 1997 have been fatal. Thus, H5N1 is viewed as a serious threat to world public health. A major difficulty in developing antibodies to combat this virus is that ten different antigenic types have evolved since the virus first emerged. But now a team of researchers has produced a so-called cross-reactive antibody that can bind to nine of the ten H5N1 groups. They showed further that it could protect mice from infection, and that it could be used to treat established infections in the mice. The research is published in the March Journal of Virology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-cross-reactive-antibodies-vanquish-h5n1-preclinical.html Medical research Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:59:19 EST news251477925 Scientists from the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) have discovered that an antigen common to most influenza viruses, and commonly referred to as matrix protein 2 (M2), when administered under the tongue could protect mice against experimental infection caused by various influenza viruses, including the highly pathogenic avian H5 virus and the pandemic H1 ("swine flu") virus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-results-mice-needle-free-candidate-universal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:22:16 EST news242562123 Vaccinating children annually against influenza virus interferes with their development of cross-reactive killer T cells to flu viruses generally, according to a paper in the November Journal of Virology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-annual-childhood-flu-vaccines-crossresistance.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:50:02 EST news240741182 Researchers in Finland said Thursday they had confirmed a link between the swine flu vaccine and the onset of the sleep disorder narcolepsy in children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-swine-flu-vaccine-linked-narcolepsy.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:37:45 EST news234081443 Children younger than 3 years old receive the same protective antibody response from the recommended two doses of licensed seasonal influenza vaccines regardless of whether the two doses are injected by needle, inhaled through a nasal spray or provided through one dose of each in any order, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Doctors usually give young children two matching vaccines, and one goal of the study was to determine whether giving two different types of vaccines works just as well. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-prime-boost-flu-vaccine-shields-toddlers.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:44:34 EST news232710259 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 A universal influenza vaccine targeting a protein common to all strains of influenza A has safely produced an immune response in humans. If proven effective, the vaccine could eliminate the practice of creating a new flu vaccine annually to match predicted strains, with major implications for global health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-universal-flu-vaccine-clinical-trials.html Medications Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:56:16 EST news226684543