http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. With frantic efforts to gird for the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic still etched on the public mind, some health officials have been gearing up weeks earlier than usual to do battle with the 2010 flu season. http://phys.org/news205765810.html Medicine & Health Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:00:01 EST news205765810 Influenza pandemics often come in multiple waves. As the one wave subsides, public health officials have to decide whether continuing vaccination programs is warranted to prevent or reduce a subsequent wave. In a new study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers report on a new computer model that can be used to predict both subsequent-wave mechanisms and vaccination effectiveness. They conclude that additional waves in an epidemic can be mitigated by vaccination even when an epidemic appears to be waning. http://phys.org/news205472006.html Medicine & Health Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:33:38 EST news205472006 Now that the H1N1 influenza pandemic is officially over, what will happen to the virus? In a perspective article published today in the online open-access journal mBio, scientists from the National Institutes of Health delve into history and explore the fates of other pandemic influenza viruses in order to speculate on the future of the most recent pandemic virus. http://phys.org/news204897908.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:10:01 EST news204897908 (PhysOrg.com) -- The influenza virus, scientists well know, is a crafty, shape-shifting organism, constantly changing form to evade host immune systems and jump from one species, like birds, to another, mammals. http://phys.org/news200225928.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:11:30 EST news200225928 Approximately 1 out of every 4 people observed in a public setting failed to cover their mouth when they coughed or sneezed according to research presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases. Even more concerning, less than 5 percent of people covered their mouth using methods recommended by public health officials. http://phys.org/news198136144.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:00:11 EST news198136144 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered that 22 species of passerines--songbirds and perching birds--in the contiguous U.S. are carriers of low-pathogenicity avian influenza. Pathogenicity is the ability of a germ to produce an infectious disease in an organism. http://phys.org/news197641521.html Biology Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:02 EST news197641521 (PhysOrg.com) -- A growing body of economic research, published in the latest issue of Research in Public Policy, finds compelling evidence that the conditions to which children are exposed in their early and even foetal years can dramatically affect their future. http://phys.org/news196678752.html Other Sciences Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:20:02 EST news196678752 Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have determined people who were vaccinated against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus may also be protected against the lethal 1918 Spanish influenza virus, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide. The new findings are published in the current issue of Nature Communications. http://phys.org/news195820107.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:50:01 EST news195820107 Fear of the H1N1 virus appears to be the driving factor behind the adoption of preventive behaviors, according to a study published in the June issue of AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, (APIC). Researchers studying the public response during the recent H1N1 outbreak in Hong Kong concluded that fear about the pandemic prompted residents to frequently wash hands and wear face-masks. http://phys.org/news194179190.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 May 2010 11:40:18 EST news194179190 (PhysOrg.com) -- A comprehensive review of 20 national opinion polls, including 8 by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers, taken during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic finds two key reasons for the limited uptake of the H1N1 influenza vaccine. First, many people who did not get the vaccine were not convinced that the illness was a serious threat to them personally. And second, many had safety concerns about the vaccine. http://phys.org/news193578646.html Medicine & Health Thu, 20 May 2010 13:10:01 EST news193578646 World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan said Monday that the world had been "lucky" with the swine flu pandemic after the virus failed to mutate to a more deadly form. http://phys.org/news193317977.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 May 2010 13:00:01 EST news193317977 A study of emergency department (ED) activity before and during the H1N1 influenza pandemic highlights the role public fear can play in unnecessarily straining medical facilities and will aid in ongoing preparations for public health emergencies, according to the authors. http://phys.org/news192166985.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 May 2010 05:30:01 EST news192166985 Scientists have discovered for the first time that antibodies in common eggs laid by hens vaccinated against the H5N1 virus can potentially prevent a possible H5N1 pandemic, raising the possibility that the same principle could be applied to the current H1N1 influenza pandemic. http://phys.org/news190893885.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:00:01 EST news190893885 A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and other institutions has solved the structure of a key protein from the virus that caused last year's "swine flu" influenza epidemic. The structure reveals that the virus shares many features with influenza viruses common in the early 20th century, helping to explain why, in general, older individuals have been less severely affected by the recent outbreak than younger ones. http://phys.org/news188657864.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:00:14 EST news188657864 Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) found an Infrared Thermal Detection System (ITDS) to be a fast and effective fever screening tool in clinical settings during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. The ITDS detected fever in patients through split-second, non-contact skin temperature measurements. Fever is a primary symptom of seasonal influenza, H1N1, avian influenza, SARS and other infectious diseases. http://phys.org/news188288994.html Medicine & Health Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:40:01 EST news188288994 One quarter of Ontario hospitals surveyed in a Queen's University-led study do not have an influenza pandemic plan and few plans that do exist have been tested. In addition, key players were not involved in developing the plans, and funding for pandemic preparedness was inadequate. http://phys.org/news185039809.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:57:10 EST news185039809 A new study, published by Elsevier this month in Vaccine, describes a new method that assesses the impact and cost-effectiveness of a range of vaccination options. The model was applied to the 2009 Influenza H1N1 outbreak and predicted accurately in real-time when the epidemic would peak and who should be prioritized for vaccination. http://phys.org/news184958519.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:10:04 EST news184958519 An assistant professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering has won a $750,000 federal grant to formulate a mathematical framework that can track the spread of pandemics among populations and malware across wireless computer networks, as well as how a blackout occurring on one major power grid can cause a cascade of additional neighboring networks to fail. http://phys.org/news184510725.html Other Sciences Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:10:01 EST news184510725 Ordinary face masks and hand hygiene can effectively reduce the transmission of influenza-like illness during flu season. The finding comes from a new study, now available online, published in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. In an influenza pandemic, vaccination may not be initially available, and antiviral prescribing may be limited, which is why scientists need to understand how effective other measures are in preventing influenza. http://phys.org/news183309180.html Medicine & Health Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:40:01 EST news183309180 Scientists in Vienna have developed a new technique for producing vaccines for H1N1, 'swine flu', based on insect cells. The research, published today in the Biotechnology Journal, reveals how influenza vaccines can be produced faster than through the traditional method of egg-based production, revealing a new strategy for the fight against influenza pandemics. http://phys.org/news181855630.html Biology Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:30:03 EST news181855630 Closing schools for less than two weeks during a flu pandemic may increase infection rates and prolong an epidemic, say University of Pittsburgh researchers in a study published ahead-of-print and online in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. The findings, developed from a series of computer simulations based on U.S. census data, indicate that schools may need to be closed for at least eight weeks in order to significantly decrease the spread of infection. http://phys.org/news181399242.html Medicine & Health Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:50:04 EST news181399242 Influenza is circulating in Africa, but virtually no information or attention is evident, says a new essay in this week's PLoS Medicine. Maria Yazdanbakhsh and Peter Kremsner argue that the lack of adequate surveillance means that the burden of influenza in Africa is incorrectly believed to be negligible. But sporadic reports from various regions in Africa indicate that influenza is circulating and may be regularly causing epidemics. http://phys.org/news180087720.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:22:46 EST news180087720 (PhysOrg.com) -- As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies. http://phys.org/news180028065.html Technology Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:00:04 EST news180028065 A German research team has examined data on supply and demand for blood transfusions against a computer simulation of an influenza pandemic, and discovered that a severe pandemic scenario could quickly lead to a deficit of up to 96,000 red blood cell (RBC) transfusion units in Germany alone, creating potentially fatal outcomes. Their study is published today in the journal TRANSFUSION. http://phys.org/news179559269.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:00:01 EST news179559269 A new study from researchers at the UK Medical Research Council and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) projects that the severity of the H1N1 flu during the autumn-winter flu season in the U.S. will likely be less than previously feared. The estimates of hospitalizations and life-threatening events in the study are the most accurate to date of the H1N1 pandemic's impact in the U.S. The study appears online on December 7, 2009 in the journal PLoS Medicine. http://phys.org/news179482852.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:30:02 EST news179482852 The relatively low number of new cases created by a single case of H1N1 influenza indicates that mitigation strategies such as vaccination, social distancing and the use of antiviral drugs may help to lessen the final impact of the virus, suggests an epidemiological modelling study reported in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://phys.org/news179067035.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:30:03 EST news179067035 (PhysOrg.com) -- How much information do people want in the event of an influenza pandemic? When do they want to be told, and who should the information come from? http://phys.org/news174911596.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:50:02 EST news174911596 Early action, especially rapid rollout of vaccines, is extremely effective in reducing the attack rate of the H1N1 influenza virus, according to a simulation model of a pandemic outbreak reported in a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://phys.org/news174662382.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:50:16 EST news174662382 Critical illness among Canadian patients with 2009 influenza A(H1N1) occurred rapidly after hospital admission, often in young adults, and was associated with severely low levels of oxygen in the blood, multi-system organ failure, a need for prolonged mechanical ventilation, and frequent use of rescue therapies, according to a study to appear in the November 4 issue of JAMA. This study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at a meeting of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. http://phys.org/news174562090.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:29:29 EST news174562090 The devastation of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic is well known, but a new article suggests a surprising factor in the high death toll: the misuse of aspirin. Appearing in the November 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online now, the article sounds a cautionary note as present day concerns about the novel H1N1 virus run high. http://phys.org/news173715307.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:15:32 EST news173715307