pandemic

Stories 1421 - 1432 | << Prev 

1976 Swine Flu Scare Taught What Not to Do

Threat led to backlash against flu vaccine

(Newser) - No matter how health officials handle the possible swine flu outbreak, it's likely to go better than it did in 1976. Back then, the government ordered a mass inoculation after one man in New Jersey died of the flu and others were sickened, the Los Angeles Times reports. Within 10...

US Swine Flu Cases Hit 40; Mexican Death Toll 149

(Newser) - The US is now confirming 40 cases of swine flu, while the death toll in Mexico is thought to have risen to 149, the Wall Street Journal reports. Of more than a thousand suspected cases in Mexico, only 26 have been confirmed, along with six in Canada and one in...

Swine Flu Fears Prompt Quarantine Plans, Pork Bans

(Newser) - Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu today as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level. Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened...

CDC Prepares Swine Flu Vaccine

(Newser) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has prepared a seed stock of vaccine for the swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico and infected a handful of Americans, Time reports. The CDC has not begun mass production of the vaccine, opting instead to see if the outbreak reaches...

WHO Chief Sees 'Pandemic Potential'

(Newser) - The World Health Organization believes the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the southwestern United States could grow into a pandemic, the Washington Post reports. “It has pandemic potential,” said WHO’s director-general. “It is infecting people.” Margaret Chan cautioned that the WHO is still...

Mexico Grapples With Flu as Pandemic Fears Fly

(Newser) - Schools and museums are closed, sold-out soccer games are being played in empty stadiums, and health workers are ordering sickly passengers off subways and buses. At nightclubs, teenagers are dancing with surgical masks on. Mexico City is grappling with what authorities fear is ground zero for a global epidemic of...

Experts Fear Swine Flu Pandemic

(Newser) - Experts are stumped and very nervous about the current swine flu outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reports. The previously unknown flu strain, which has killed up to 68 in Mexico and infected eight Americans, is doing two new things: passing from person to person, and mixing viruses in a...

Not Scared of TB? You Should Be

Resistant strain could ravage the world, and we're not ready

(Newser) - "Global complacency" could give rise to a terrifying, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times—and not in some remote outpost on the globe. There have been fewer than 100 cases of this XDR-TB in the past 15 years in the US, but with...

12 Ways Climate Change Could Kill You

Warmer temperatures may cause spread of dangerous pathogens

(Newser) - A dozen deadly diseases may become even deadlier as a result of climate change, Scientific American reports. Cholera, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and other ailments are spreading to new areas as temperatures rise, a Wildlife Conservation Society study says. The society suggests monitoring wildlife to prevent a human outbreak of “...

1918 Flu Survivors Still Have Killer Antibodies

Findings help fight against avian flu

(Newser) - The flu pandemic that killed up to 100 million people in 1918 left survivors with a strong set of antibodies—strong enough to still be viable today, Reuters reports. Mice given survivor antibodies managed to fight off the deadly flu when they were infected with the virus extracted from exhumed...

Brits Warn of Devastating Pandemic

World ill-prepared for massive outbreak

(Newser) - The world is in danger of losing up to 50 million people to an "inevitable" flu pandemic, and global response agencies aren't ready for such a test, the British government warns. A report rates early-warning systems as "poorly coordinated" and calls for an overhaul of the World Health...

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting
 Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting 
May 6, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting

Experts fear spread of disease, entrenched in avian population, to humans

(Newser) - The danger of a worldwide bird flu epidemic is growing as the virus becomes established in the avian population, Reuters reports. World Health Organization experts today urged all nations to prepare in case the H5N1 virus mutates into a form easily transferable between humans. In birds, the strain has spread...

Stories 1421 - 1432 | << Prev 
Most Read on Newser