Influenza, or flu, and air pollution are significant public health risks that impact nations around the world with large economic consequences. The authors of this paper show that increased levels of air pollution significantly increase the rate of hospitalisation for people with flu. In addition, they find that protection afforded …
Top scientists commissioned by Hong Kong's health authorities to probe a recent influenza outbreak here have not found an especially virulent form of virus from children who died after coming down with flu, the head of the expert team said Thursday. Yuen Kwok-yung told reporters the common flu virus was …
The Hong Kong government on Thursday closed all elementary schools and preschools in the territory a week early for Easter holidays after three children died amid an influenza outbreak, but insisted there was no sign that SARS or bird flu were involved. The abrupt closing of the schools, announced late …
Poultry traders in the port city receive a ray of hope again with the increased sale of eggs and chickens since early this week after the business facing a severe crisis during the last two months due to avian influenza in the region. But most of the small traders who …
The government has so far distributed nearly Tk 4.70 crore to the poultry farmers all over the country, who have sustained losses due to avian influenza, as part of the compensation for exterminating the contaminated poultry and destroying eggs to prevent the spread of the disease in the country, said …
A strain of influenza virus resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu was found in a total of five flu patients in Yokohama city with three of them believed to comprise a case of group infection, health officials of the city said Thursday. Relenza, another antiviral drug, was effective for the …
As concerns wane that the bird flu strain H5N1 will spark a global pandemic, scientists are warning that the virus, perhaps less of a threat, is here to stay.
The masked official in white protective gear and bright blue gloves grabbed a squawking hen by its legs, held it upside down and twisted its neck in one swift motion. The bird expelled a mass of possibly contaminated faeces that sprayed the man's mask and faces of unprotected village boys …
First human bird flu case in Pakistan: WHO has confirmed that the limited human-to-human bird flu transmission has occurred in Pakistan. The country reported eight cases of human bird flu in December including two people who succumbed to the disease. An initial analysis by WHO says that the outbreak might …
the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic influenza, conducted recently in New Delhi, came up with a New Delhi Road Map for 2008 for the 60 countries currently affected by the avian influenza virus h5n1, and the rest that are at risk. The roadmap, prepared by the government of …
>> Authorities confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain in Suffolk county, the UK, on November 13. An exclusion zone was imposed at the site and about 6,000 poultry were ordered to be culled. >> China-made toys were once again withdrawn from shops in North America and Australia …
the Union ministry of health and family welfare has given the go-ahead for including an expensive vaccine into the country's immunisation programme despite the absence of scientific data. A meeting of the national technical advisory group on immunization (ntagi) held in July 16, 2007, decided that Haemophilus influenzae b (hib) …
rational use of drugs may not always delay resistance to a drug. A research team led by the National Institutes of Health in the us has found that the influenza virus h3n2 were resistant to drugs belonging to the adamantane group irrespective of whether they were exposed to the drug …
>> Avian flu was confirmed in Togo, the seventh West African nation to have reported the outbreak on June 22. The virus caused the deaths of 2,000 chicken in June near Togo's capital Lome. >> Authorities detected polluted water in the Warragamba Dam situated near Sydney in Australia, after rain …
With a bird flu alert being sounded at the Indo-Bengal border, the city of Siliguri in West Bengal's Darjeeling district has reasons to worry. More than 2,500 chicken deaths have been reported from a poultry farm here. Chicken had been dying in the Raj Aziz Poultry Farm at Patharghata village …
indonesia has agreed to share h5n1 avian influenza virus samples with who. This step comes after a high-level technical meeting was conducted in Jakarta on March 26-27, which discussed responsible practices for sharing avian influenza viruses for research and their benefits. This issue will be further discussed at the forthcoming …
>> At 2 am on March 11, 2007 (0700 GMT), the US pushed forward the hands on its clocks by an hour. The shift came three weeks earlier than usual. Normally US clocks "spring forward' on the first Sunday of April and "fall back' on the last Sunday of October. …
The European Commission has confirmed that the bird flu virus that killed 2,600 turkeys at a farm in eastern England in the first week of February 2007 was the virulent h5n1 strain. It is for the first time this strain has been found in Britain. There is no clarity as …
In a bid to contain the rising number of human bird flu deaths, Indonesian government has banned all backyard poultry in its capital Jakarta. Four Indonesians died from the disease in the first week of January and another was confirmed as infected. This makes Indonesia's human death toll from bird …