Flu Watch News.com

China: 2nd Bird Flu Death in a Month

Flu Watch News — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:52:55 +0000

A 39-year-old man from the Guizhou province in China fell ill with a fever and was admitted into the hospital on January 6th. The Xinhua news agency reported after three days in intensive care, the patient died.
This is the second H5N1 related death following the December 31, 2011 death of from the city of Shenzhen, bordering Hong Kong. It has been reported that both men had no direct contact with poultry.

Read more: thestatecolumn.com
and:news.ninemsn.com

Taiwan Reports H5N2 bird flu: 1st case in 2012

Flu Watch News — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:35:52 +0000

The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), began daily inspections at a farm in Changhua County after rumors that a large number of its chickens had died. On Dec 30, 2011 and Jan 4, 2012 the samples collected tested positive of the H5N2 virus, but the chickens of the farm have not shown any obvious pathological symptoms, the BAPHIQ said.
source:news.asiaone.com

New Swine Flu Strain H3N2v: 12 Infected

Flu Watch News — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:16:41 +0000

USNEWS.com is reporting that 12 people living in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control say “an influenza A (H1N1) virus that is known to circulate in U.S. swine but not humans has been detected in an adult in the state of Wisconsin. The patient reported occupational contact with swine prior to illness onset. No human-to-human transmission with this virus has been identified.The virus identified in Wisconsin has genes from avian, swine and human influenza viruses, making it a so-called “triple reassortant” (tr) virus. Triple reassortant viruses have been circulating in U.S. swine since the 1990s. However the virus detected in Wisconsin is different from earlier triple reassortant influenza A H1N1 viruses in swine (tr-H1N1) in that it has acquired the matrix [M] gene) from the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus.”

Bird Flu Death: Indonesia on High Alert

Flu Watch News — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:58:50 +0000

credit:JG Photo/Safir Makki

Indonesia is still struggling not only with the resent earthquake but also the H5N1 virus. A 23-year-old man identified as P.D.Y. died after being treated for six days at Satya Negara Hospital. His blood test came back positive for the H5N1 virus, making him the first victim of bird flu in 2012.
[Read complete story: Jakarta Globe]

Concerns: Labs Create Air-Born H5N1

FluWatchNews — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:14:07 +0000

Two labs, one in Madison, Wis., and one in Rotterdam, made strains of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza that were transmissible in the air. Some in the scientific community have express the option that, if the virus escaped, the result wound be devastating.
The Sunday New York Times published an editorial calling the research, Doomsday Engineering.

Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine

FluWatchNews — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:17:29 +0000

credit:blog.lsc.edu

The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year.

There are two types of vaccines:

The “flu shot” — an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.

There are three different flu shots available:
a regular flu shot approved for people ages 6 months and older
a high-dose flu shot approved for people 65 and older, and
an intradermal flu shot approved for people 18 to 64 years of age.
The nasal-spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that is given as a nasal spray (sometimes called LAIV for “Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine”). The viruses in the nasal spray vaccine do not cause the flu. LAIV is approved for use in healthy* people 2 through 49 years of age who are not pregnant.

Seasonal flu vaccines protect against the three influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season. The viruses in the vaccine can change each year based on international surveillance and scientists’ estimations about which types and strains of viruses will circulate in a given year. About 2 weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against the influenza viruses in the vaccine develop in the body.
source:cdc.gov

WHO confirms H5N1 deaths in Egypt and China

Flu Watch News — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:12:03 +0000

The patient from Egypt, a 42-year-old from Menofia governorate, got sick on Dec 16 and was admitted to a hospital in critical condition and treated with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) on Dec 21, the WHO said in a statement. The man died the next day, raising Egypt’s official H5N1 infection total to 157 and the number of deaths from the disease to 55.
The man from China, a 39-year-old from Shenzhen in Guangdong province, came down with flu symptoms on Dec 21 and was hospitalized in critical condition on Dec 25. He died on Dec 31, pushing China’s WHO-confirmed H5N1 cases to 41 and its deaths from the virus to 27. His H5N1 case and death, however, are the country’s first in 2011.

read source:CIDRAP NEWS

Hong Kong diagnoses bird flu

Flu Watch News — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:16:53 +0000

BBC News

Reports from BBC News state that a woman in Hong Kong is seriously ill in the hospital with bird flu – the first human case of the disease to be diagnosed in the territory since 2003, when the last outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Hong Kong killed six people.
Health chief York Chow said there was no sign yet that the virus has been spread between humans and that investigations were focusing on poultry as being the source of the infection.
“But we will be concentrating on people who were in contact with her when she showed symptoms and also when she was in Hong Kong,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

Fewer may get flu shots

fluwatchnews.com — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:54:57 +0000

Only a year after the swine flu pandemic led Americans to line up for flu shots, many people are now spurning vaccines, two studies suggest.

Only 37% of people plan to definitely get vaccinated this year, a Consumer Reports survey shows. About 30% say they definitely won’t get a shot, while 31% of respondents are undecided, the survey of 1,500 says.

Fungus is behind at least 15 deaths in Pacific Northwest

Flu Watch News — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:28:21 +0000

A formerly tropical fungus is behind at least 15 deaths in the U.S. Pacific Northwest over six years, health officials say. The fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, is considered rare. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described cases of infection in the U.S. since 2004 in its weekly report on death and disease, published online on Friday.

Patients’ symptoms included:

* Cough, 56 per cent.
* Shortness of breath, 51 per cent.
* Headache, 53 per cent.
* Fever, 42 per cent.
* Weight loss, 40 per cent.
* Neck stiffness, 21 per cent.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/07/23/cryptococcus-fungus-infections-cdc.html#ixzz0unnSCXKD