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Illness outbreaks
Coverage of bird flu, the West Nile virus, and other dangerous illnesses
West Nile virus found in mosquitoes
(08/09/06) Cape Girardeau County officials have confirmed West Nile virus in two samples of mosquitoes. The samples collected in different traps in Cape Girardeau July 24 tested positive for the virus, according to Dr. Christina Frazier. Frazier, a Southeast Missouri State University biology professor, works with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on the mosquito trapping program for the state...
States seek government help in buying anti-flu medicine
(07/08/06) South Carolina is in. Utah and Alabama, too. Missouri is poised to follow suit. Some states aren't waiting for an Aug. 1 deadline to seek help from the federal government in buying anti-flu medicine for a possible pandemic. "We figure it is certainly better to do it and move forward with the purchase and hope we never have to use it than not and wish that we had," said Jim Beasley, spokesman for South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control...
Mad cow cases in Texas, Alabama appear to be rare strain
(06/12/06) WASHINGTON -- Two cases of mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that could appear spontaneously in cattle, researchers say. Government officials are trying to play down differences between the two U.S. cases and the mad cow epidemic that has led to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in Britain since the 1980s...
WHO says bird flu drug maker on alert
(05/28/06) KUBU SIMBELANG, Indonesia -- The biggest case yet of humans infecting others with bird flu prompted the World Health Organization to put the maker of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu on alert for possible shipment of the global stockpile for the first time, officials said Saturday...
Health official says family could be first three-person chain of bird flu
(05/25/06) GENEVA -- A family of eight infected with bird flu in Indonesia likely passed the disease among themselves, but world health officials said Wednesday there is no reason to raise its pandemic alert level. It is the fourth -- and largest -- family cluster of bird flu cases likely transmitted from person to person since the start of the outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said...
Bird flu may be in U.S. as early as summer
(05/11/06) Tuesday night millions of Americans died from avian flu following an outbreak that spread rapidly around the world. In the ABC television network movie, "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," a strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus originates in a Hong Kong market and mutates into a human virus that rapidly spreads across the world...
Egyptian woman dies of bird flu
(03/28/06) CAIRO, Egypt -- A 30-year-old woman died of the H5N1 bird flu strain on Monday, Egypt's second human death from the virus since it appeared in the country last month, the health ministry announced. Czech authorities said they suspected their first case of H5N1 in a dead swan...
Second human bird flu case found in Egypt; Israel continues poultry slaughter
(03/20/06) CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt reported its second human case of avian flu Sunday, and Israel continued its slaughter of hundreds of thousands of birds while waiting to learn if the disease had spread to poultry there. A 30-year-old Egyptian who worked on a chicken farm in the province of Qalyoubiya was the second person infected by the virus in Egypt, the Health Ministry said Sunday...
Alabama's mad cow case highlights need for U.S. livestock tracking
(03/19/06) WASHINGTON -- Investigators may never figure out where the Alabama cow with mad cow disease was born and raised, in part because the U.S. lacks a livestock tracking system the Bush administration promised two years ago. After the first case of mad cow disease in December 2003, the government pledged to get a nationwide program into place quickly so officials could track cows, pigs and chickens from their birth to the dinner table. Today, however, the system is a long way off...
Alabama cow tests positive for mad cow disease
(03/14/06) WASHINGTON -- A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said Monday, confirming the third U.S. case of the brain-wasting ailment. The cow did not enter the food supply for people or animals, officials said. The animal, unable to walk, was killed by a local veterinarian and buried on the farm...
WHO: Bird flu has cost $10 billion
(03/07/06) GENEVA -- The lethal strain of bird flu poses a greater challenge to the world than any infectious disease, including AIDS, and has cost 300 million farmers more than $10 billion in its spread through poultry around the world, the World Health Organization said Monday...
Virus found in Austrian cats
(03/07/06) VIENNA, Austria -- Three cats have tested positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria's first reported case of the disease spreading to an animal other than a bird, state authorities said Monday. The sick cats were among 170 living at an animal shelter where the disease was detected in chickens last month, authorities said...
Second vaccine in the works
(03/07/06) ATLANTA -- With new versions of bird flu emerging, U.S. health officials announced Monday that scientists must stir up a different vaccine recipe to try to protect people. That's not unexpected because flu viruses -- whether in birds or people -- are constantly changing...
Study: Birth defect risks from West Nile virus are slight
(03/06/06) CHICAGO -- Pregnant women who get West Nile virus likely will have normal babies, although a small risk of birth defects can't be completely ruled out, according to the first published report from a multistate registry. Researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called their report "somewhat reassuring" but said pregnant women still should be especially careful to follow precautions, including staying indoors when mosquito activity is high and wearing repellent during mosquito season.. ...
Bird flu wings into Europe, Africa
(02/26/06) GENEVA -- For years after its appearance in 1997 in Hong Kong, the current bird flu virus seemed corralled in a few east Asian countries. But in the past four months, it has spread across Europe and into Africa, bringing to 31 the number of countries with sick birds...
WHO confirms spread of deadly bird flu to Turkey
(01/08/06) GENEVA -- Teenage siblings who died of bird flu in Turkey were the first humans outside East Asia to succumb to the deadly H5N1 strain that has apparently been spread by migratory birds, the U.N. health agency said Saturday. A British laboratory confirmed Saturday that the 15-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother were infected with the virus, said Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. Testing is continuing on an 11-year-old sister who died Friday...
Family loses three children to bird flu in poor Turkish town
(01/07/06) DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey -- The mother wailed as the white shroud bearing the body of her 11-year-old daughter was lowered into a simple grave Friday, her third child to die in less than a week from bird flu. An imam in a surgical mask and rubber gloves read prayers...
Study: Bird flu victims died after becoming resistant to Tamiflu
(12/22/05) In a development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients in Vietnam died after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that governments are stockpiling in case of a large-scale outbreak. The experts said the deaths were disturbing because the two girls had received early and aggressive treatment with Tamiflu and had gotten the recommended doses...
White House in test exercise of readiness for pandemic flu
(12/11/05) WASHINGTON -- The White House on Saturday sought to "push resources to the breaking point" as officials tested the government's readiness for a flu pandemic in the United States. The four-hour drill at the White House complex involved Cabinet secretaries and top federal officials. President Bush, though remaining at the White House for the weekend, did not participate. He went for a bike ride in suburban Maryland on a cold winter morning. Vice President Dick Cheney also stayed away...
Official: U.S. vaccine supplies for flu pandemic inadequate
(11/21/05) WASHINGTON -- The United States is unprepared for the next flu pandemic, lacking the manufacturing capacity to provide 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five more years, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday. "What we all learned from [Hurricane] Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable," Leavitt said. "We're not as prepared as we need to be. ...We will not have enough for everyone."...
China reports first human bird-flu cases; two dead
(11/17/05) BEIJING -- China reported its first human cases of bird flu on the mainland Wednesday, including at least one fatality, as health workers armed with vaccine and disinfectant raced to inoculate billions of chickens and other poultry in a massive campaign to contain the virus...
State officials discuss bird flu plans
(11/11/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State health officials on Thursday told a homeland security panel about the risks of bird flu hitting Missouri and what the state is doing to prepare for such an outbreak. A deadly strain of bird flu first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, re-emerged in December 2003 and has spread from Asia to Europe. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a new strain that passes easily among people, possibly triggering a pandemic...
KFC making TV commercials to respond to any bird flu outbreak
(11/09/05) LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- In coming days, KFC will have television commercials ready to reassure customers that its chicken is safe to eat in the event of a bird flu outbreak. The chicken chain said Tuesday it hopes the spots never have to air, but it's taking no chances in the face of a potential threat to business...
Bush unveils new strategy to combat flu pandemic
(11/03/05) WASHINGTON -- A flu pandemic that hits the United States would force cities to ration scarce drugs and vaccine and house the sick in hotels or schools when hospitals overflow, unprecedented federal plans say. The Bush administration's long-awaited report Wednesday on battling a worldwide super-flu outbreak makes clear that old-fashioned infection-control will be key...
Asia-Pacific to stage mock flu outbreak
(11/02/05) BRISBANE, Australia -- Countries across the Asia-Pacific region coping with an outbreak of bird flu plan to stage a mock disease outbreak next year to gauge how well they would respond to a pandemic or other major health threat, an Australian official said Tuesday...
Bush outlines strategy for flu pandemic
(11/02/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush announced a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for a possible worldwide super-flu outbreak, aiming to overhaul the vaccine industry so eventually every American could be inoculated within six months of a pandemic's beginning...
In a world full of microbes, will billions of dollars build biodefenses?
(10/31/05) AIRO, Egypt -- The bacteria lie dormant, freeze-dried in sealed ampules, in a refrigerator on a teeming university campus beside the Nile. They're among Earth's most common germs -- clostridia perfringens, a cause of food poisoning, a specimen for research. But this pathogen can also be a weapon: Iraqi scientists worked for years to mobilize this "Agent G" for Saddam Hussein's wars...
Classes canceled at Kelso school due to cases of stomach virus
(10/20/05) Kelso students will not have school again until Monday because 42 percent of students are sick with a stomach virus. Some of the students were sick Tuesday and did not come to school, while others vomited during the school day. By Wednesday afternoon 48 out of 112 students, half of the teaching staff and the superintendent had been affected by this virus...
New cases of deadly bird flu found in Romania and European Russia
(10/20/05) China has reported 2,600 birds found dead. BEIJING -- Some 2,600 birds have been found dead of bird flu in northern China's grasslands, the government said Wednesday, amid reports of new outbreaks in Europe and Russia. Preliminary tests detected the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in samples taken from a region south of Moscow where hundreds of birds died suddenly, the Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday...
European Union ministers declare bird flu a global threat
(10/19/05) LUXEMBOURG -- European Union foreign ministers Tuesday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia to Europe a global threat, as the Swiss manufacturer of one of the only available anti-flu drugs announced it was building a new U.S. plant to increase production amid fears of a major outbreak...
Americans worry about bird flu, flood CDC with health questions
(10/17/05) ATLANTA -- Americans fearful of bird flu are peppering health officials with all sorts of questions: Is it safe to have a bird feeder in my yard? If I see a dead bird, should I report it? Is it still OK to have turkey at Thanksgiving? The answers are yes, no and yes...
Romania confirms presence of deadly bird flu
(10/16/05) BUCHAREST, Romania -- Romanian authorities called for calm Saturday as they quarantined an eastern region where tests confirmed Europe's first appearance of a deadly strain of bird flu that has devastated flocks and killed dozens of people in Asia...
Dealing with a stronger germ
(10/13/05) Hospitals noticed it first. Then cases started appearing in nursing homes, in jails and among athletes who shared locker rooms. Now the infection is becoming more and more common in other settings. It is a dangerous form of staphylococcus that resists treatment with common antibiotics. And it can kill. In August the germ took the life of 4-year-old Ethan Patrick Williams of rural Perry County...
Turkish and Romanian officials begin slaughtering poultry after bird flu detected
(10/10/05) ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The slaughter of thousands of domestic fowl in Turkey and Romania began Sunday as a precaution against the spread of bird flu after both countries confirmed their first cases of the disease over the weekend. It has not been determined in either country that the disease is the same H5N1 strain that has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, infecting humans and killing at least 60 people...
U.S. working on plan in case of flu pandemic
(10/09/05) WASHINGTON -- A super-flu could kill up to 1.9 million Americans, according to a draft of the government's plan to fight a worldwide epidemic. Officials are rewriting that plan to designate not just who cares for the sick but who will keep the country running amid the chaos, said an influenza specialist who is advising the government on those decisions...
Containing bird flu abroad critical to new U.S. flu pandemic plans
(10/07/05) WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's top health official said Thursday that "no one in the world is ready" for a potentially catastrophic outbreak of bird flu as President Bush summoned vaccine manufacturers to the White House to discuss the situation...
Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus to help fend off bird flu
(10/06/05) ATLANTA -- Scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed. Why did they do it? Researchers say it may help them better understand -- and develop defenses against -- the threat of a future worldwide epidemic from bird flu...
Stomach flu making its presence known
(09/30/05) A flu-like nuisance is sweeping through families as the fall season begins. Commonly referred to as the flu, the stomach flu is a highly contagious illness that lasts on average 24 hours, said Dr. Daniel Bieser of the Mount Auburn Medical Group. It is not to be mistaken as influenza, which is a respiratory illness...
Polio outbreak exposes weaknesses in Indonesia's health-care system
(09/28/05) Radical decentralization in 2001 has added to the country's health-care woes. JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A polio outbreak that spread rapidly through Indonesia after a decadelong absence, crippling hundreds of children, has exposed weaknesses in the sprawling archipelago's long-neglected health-care system...
New mosquito capable of carrying West Nile found in Missouri
(09/27/05) The insects can transmit the virus to humans after feeding on infected birds. ST. LOUIS -- A species of mosquito common in the eastern U.S. and capable of carrying the West Nile virus has made its way to the Midwest for the first time, a finding made by a college undergraduate, Washington University officials said Monday...
Study: Resistant staph germ killed three Chicago children
(09/22/05) Three Chicago-area children have died of a toxic shock syndrome-like illness caused by a superbug they caught in the community and not in the hospital, where the germ is usually found. The cases show that this already worrisome staph germ has become even more dangerous by acquiring the ability to cause this shock-like condition...
U.N. agency foresees bird flu spreading from Asia
(09/01/05) ROME -- The bird flu virus that has hit several Asian countries is likely to spread to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the U.N. food agency warned on Wednesday, urging nations at risk to step up surveillance and prepare national emergency plans...
Mass polio vaccinations hampered by rumors, fear
(08/28/05) CIKEUSAL, Indonesia -- Holding her 2-year-old son, Sari listens intently in a ramshackle health clinic as the medical staff assures her and other villagers about the safety of the vaccine being used to fight Indonesia's first polio outbreak in a decade...
West Nile virus found in county
(08/24/05) Cape Girardeau has become one of eight Missouri counties to confirm the virus this year. Keep on the guard against mosquitoes, Cape Girardeau County officials warned Tuesday after learning that insects infected with the West Nile virus were discovered here...
Research finds crows may not be big carrier of disease
(07/30/05)
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The beloved American robin, not the annoying, raucous crow, may be the more potent source for West Nile virus, according to new research. A DNA analysis of blood taken from the abdomens of 300 mosquitoes trapped in Connecticut over the past three years found that 40 percent fed on the blood of the red-breasted songbird and only 1 percent on crows, said Theodore Andreadis, chief medical entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station... |