Minn. Pigs May Have Tested Positive For Swine Flu
The samples were taken from pigs shown at the Minnesota State Fair between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1 as part of a university research project. Officials expect results next week to confirm whether the pigs were infected with swine flu virus, also known as H1N1.
The pigs did not show signs of sickness and officials said they likely contracted the virus from some of the nearly 1.8 million people who visited the fair.
The Department of Agricultures veterinary lab in Ames, Iowa, is conducting tests to confirm the results, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
In a conference call with reporters [...]
Swine Flu 6 Months Later: Relief, But Winter Looms
Now that the initial scare over the swine flu has subsided, health officials warn we are not out of danger yet.
“Weve got many, many months ahead of us where we dont know what will happen and we need to take the best steps we can to protect ourselves,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week. “Our biggest concern is that the virus could change, mutate to become more deadly.”
With winter approaching, another fear is a one-two punch in which a resurgent swine flu batters young people before the vaccine is widely available, [...]
Study Links Virus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
That doesnt mean the virus causes chronic fatigue, stressed the research published Thursday in the journal Science.
The team of scientists from the National Cancer Institute and Nevadas Whittemore Peterson Institute said it was possible the virus, named XMRV, was just “a passenger virus” that catches a ride in patients whose immune systems are weakened by chronic fatigue.
Moreover, the researchers found nearly 4 percent of healthy people carried the virus, too. That raises bigger questions about just what role this recently discovered virus - a relative of viruses that cause cancer in mice - may be playing [...]
Aids Study Flushes Out Hidden Virus, Pointing to Possible Cure
Current anti-HIV drugs reduce the virus to undetectable levels without eradicating it. The virus survives by lying dormant in immune-system cells, where the medicines dont reach them. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute reported yesterday that they developed a way of luring out these cells in laboratory experiments, an achievement they said may lead to a cure if repeated in humans.
In 2007, about 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and 2 million died of [...]
Deadly Virus Hunters Discover Ebola, Marburg Source In Fruit Bats
After a five-year search in the jungles of Africa, an international team of virus hunters has identified a fruit bat that may be the natural host for both hemorrhage-causing diseases. Also, the viruses are more widespread than previously thought, according to their research, which was accepted this week for publication in the open-access journal BioMed Central.
The study, based on blood tests on more than 2,000 bats in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, will help scientists solve a mystery that has confounded them for more than [...]
Study Tries to Detect Flu Before The First Sneeze
Its a novel experiment: Students report daily whether they have any cold or flu symptoms. If they do, a team swoops in to test not just the sneezer but, more importantly, seemingly healthy friends and hallmates who might be incubating the infection.
“Were redefining the definition of being ill,” says Col. Geoffrey Ling, a physician with the Defense Research Projects Agency, the Defense Departments research arm, which came up with the idea.
The reason: The military faces huge problems when flu or other viruses sweep through crowded barracks, and knowing an outbreak was brewing could allow them to separate and protect those [...]
Coughing Swine In Northern Ireland Prompt Search For Flu Source
The pandemic H1N1 influenza strain infected about 4,500 hogs at the piggery in Greenhill, U.K. veterinary officials said in a report to the World Organization for Animal Health yesterday. Five pigs died in the outbreak, first noticed Sept. 1, when some of the animals began coughing and lost their appetite.
Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said no known cases of human flu have been linked with the outbreak, which resembles infections in pigs in Canada, Australia and Argentina that have usually caused a mild illness from which [...]
Studies: Swine Flu Spreads Extended After Fever Stops
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer - especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.
Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.
“This study shows youre not contagious for a day or two. Youre probably contagious for about a week,” said Gaston De Serres, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in [...]
Study: New Treatment May Combat Drug-resistant Flu
The woman had recently undergone chemotherapy for Hodgkins disease. After catching swine flu, her lungs filled with fluid and she was put on a ventilator to help her breathe. Despite days of being given Tamiflu, inhalable Relenza, and other medicines, the patient deteriorated.
So her doctors decided to try a different way of getting the drug into her body, since her lungs werent able to absorb the antivirals the usual way. After getting permission from her family and a hospital committee, they gave her an unlicensed, intravenous form of the antiviral zanamivir, or Relenza, provided by its maker, GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The [...]
Swine Flu Basics: Whos At Risk, If to Expect Shots _ And The Way, Porks
This summer, the virus has been surprisingly tenacious in the U.S., refusing to fade away as flu viruses usually do. And health officials predict a surge of cases this fall, perhaps very soon as schools reopen.
A White House report from an expert panel suggests that from 30 percent to half the population could catch swine flu during the course of this pandemic and that from 30,000 to 90,000 could die.
So how worried should you be and how do you prepare? The Associated Press has tried to boil down the mass of information into 10 things you should know to be [...]