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Influenza, or as it is commonly known, the flu, is
a contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus.
The influenza virus can cause mild to severe illness, and while most people
recover without complications in 1-2 weeks, the disease at times can lead to death.
The best approach to influenza is through prevention but once the infection
takes place and the symptoms appear (high fever, headache, extreme tiredness etc)
the disease needs to be treated.
Today serious concern is caused by two particular forms of influenza called
Avian influenza (bird flu). and Swine influenza (swine flu).
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| Thousands of former Yugoslavians may have settled in America, but echoes of the war still resound. ... more info |
| After endless toing and froing over whether two studies that demonstrated how bird flu, also known as avian H5N1 influenza, or avian flu, should be published, one of them has appeared in the latest issue of the journal Nature in its entirety. The studies show how the bird flu virus could become transmissible from mammal-to-mammal; as humans are mammals, the same would apply to humans... ... more info |
| Professor's seeks to ease concerns that he had created virus strains that could threaten humans if obtained by terrorists ... more info |
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| Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a number of tiny but powerful "genetic regulators" that are hijacked by avian and swine flu viruses during human infection. The discovery, published in the Journal of Virology, could reveal new targets for broad-spectrum antivirals to combat current - and perhaps future - strains of influenza A viruses... ... more info |
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| In the controversy surrounding the newly developed strains of avian H5N1 flu viruses, scientists and policy makers are struggling with one question in particular: what level of biosafety is best for studying these potentially lethal strains of influenza? In a pair of commentaries, researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the University of Michigan arg... ... more info |
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| 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... ... more info |
| Experts say that the 2012 flu season is just starting, and although it is later than usual, they expect that about 5 million people will contract a severe form of flu that will claim 500,000 lives. Those most vulnerable are young children and older adults... ... more info |
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| In the controversy surrounding the newly developed strains of avian H5N1 flu viruses, scientists and policy makers are struggling with one question in particular: what level of biosafety is best for studying these potentially lethal strains of influenza? In a pair of commentaries, researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the University of Michigan arg... ... more info |
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| 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... ... more info |
| Experts say that the 2012 flu season is just starting, and although it is later than usual, they expect that about 5 million people will contract a severe form of flu that will claim 500,000 lives. Those most vulnerable are young children and older adults... ... more info |
| After the discovery of a new influenza A virus in fruit bats in Guatemala, a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reveals that the virus represents no current threat to humans, although scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of the Valley of Guatemala, recommend to research the virus as a potential so... ... more info |
| An emerging class of long-lasting flu vaccines could do more than just save people the trouble of an annual flu shot. Princeton University-based researchers have found that the "universal" vaccine could for the first time allow for the effective, wide-scale prevention of flu by limiting the influenza virus' ability to spread and mutate... ... more info |
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| The debate about the potential severity of an outbreak of airborne H5N1 influenza in humans needs to move on from speculation and focus instead on how we can safely continue H5N1 research and share the results among researchers, according to a commentary published in mBioŽ, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.... ... more info |
| The temporary moratorium on research on lab-modified bird flu (H5N1) viruses is to be extended, and the publication of the studies' "entire manuscript" is to be delayed... ... more info |
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| Researchers at the University of Southampton, University of Oxford and Retroscreeen Virology Ltd have discovered a series of peptides, found on the internal structures of influenza viruses that could lead to the development of a universal vaccine for influenza, one that gives people immunity against all strains of the disease, including seasonal, avian, and swine flu... ... more info |
| A stockpiled vaccine designed to fight a strain of avian flu that circulated in 2004 can be combined with a vaccine that matches the current strain of bird flu to protect against a potential pandemic, researchers from Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development have found... ... more info |
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| A Georgetown University Medical Center professor says the voluntary action taken by two research teams to temporarily halt work involving the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is "laudable... ... more info |
| On Thursday the Vietnamese authorities reported that a duck farmer has died of bird flu, coinciding with reports that a two-year-old boy in Cambodia has also died of the virus this week. The Vietnamese victim died on 11 January. According to the authorities this was the first human death from avian flu for nearly two years... ... more info |
| The Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection (CHP) received notification from the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the 30th December concerning a suspected human case of influenza A (H5N1) in Shenzhen. The man has unfortunately died... ... more info |
| Authorities in Hong Kong have banned imports of poultry products from certain places in neighbouring Shenzhen, a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, following the death there of a man confirmed as having the deadly form of bird flu known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1... ... more info |
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