An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and some dollars. Each year the cold and flu season can wreak havoc on people and their wallets. According to the National Institutes of Health, cold and flu have an annual economic impact in the U.S. of over $30 billion from missed school or work. [...]
Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) officials are urging Kentuckians to get a flu vaccination after the season’s first culture-confirmed case of influenza was reported by the State Public Health Laboratory this week. The case was from Adair County.
DPH is reporting the results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of [...]
Today, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and former Subcommittee Chairman for Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, James R. Langevin (D-RI), released a Majority staff report entitled “Getting Beyond Getting Ready for Pandemic Influenza.”
The report examines the Nation’s state of preparedness and response capabilities in the event of a pandemic [...]
All indicators are that flu activity is accelerating in North Carolina, according to state public health officials. Approximately 30 of the 77 health care providers across the state who participate in the state’s Influenna Sentinel Surveillance Program, and hospital emergency departments, reported an increase in flu-like illness during the past week, and the State Laboratory [...]
With an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections growing, experts are warning grocery-store pharmacies that antibiotics giveaways are an unhealthy promotional gimmick. If grocery stores want to help customers and save them money during cold and flu season, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) says, they should offer free influenza vaccinations instead.
Giant, Stop %26amp; Shop, and [...]
Home Health Care During an Influenza Pandemic: Issues and Resources, a report identifying home health care as a critical component in providing care during a pandemic influenza event and offering resources to home health care providers and community planners to prepare for such an event, was released today by the U.S. Department of Health and [...]
The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (SCVPD) under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Hong Kong Department Of Health released its recommendations for the coming 2008/09 influenza season, recommending nine categories of people to receive vaccination against influenza.
Apart from the target groups recommended last year, a CHP spokesman said the committee had [...]
As they design new drugs to fight off influenza, scientists may not need to attack the virus directly. Instead, they may be able to stave off infection by targeting one of more than 100 proteins inside host cells on which the virus depends.
These potential drug targets are the result of a study in which scientists, [...]
Home Health Care During an Influenza Pandemic: Issues and Resources, a report identifying home health care as a critical component in providing care during a pandemic influenza event and offering resources to home health care providers and community planners to prepare for such an event, was released today by the U.S. Department of Health and [...]
Most nursing homes are not properly prepared and equipped to fight pandemic flu, finds the new study of nursing homes and flu preparedness.
The study appears in Journal of the American Medical Association and points that in case of influenza pandemic the US nursing homes will fail to fight the infection. Researchers sent questionnaires to all [...]