Recently in the Swine Flu Category
January 15, 2010 11:34 AM
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H5N1 Forgotten (Almost), But Not Gone
While the world's flu fighters have concentrated on countering the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, avian influenza H5N1 has quietly continued to take its toll on both poultry and humans....
January 14, 2010 5:27 PM
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Facing Inquiry, WHO Strikes Back at "Fake Pandemic" Swine Flu Criticism
The chief flu scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) today defended his agency against criticism that the H1N1 swine flu pandemic was "fake," that its threat to human...
For Sale: 19 Million Doses of Pandemic Vaccine, as Good as New
AMSTERDAM—The Netherlands is selling the bulk of its H1N1 pandemic vaccine supply. Some 19 million doses of the 34 million doses that the government has ordered from manufacturers Novartis...
November 13, 2009 4:02 PM
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H1N1: Has the Second Wave Peaked in U.S. and U.K.?
As public health officials have stressed since the swine flu pandemic surfaced last April, influenza is unpredictable. But one thing is predictable: pandemic influenza viruses come in waves that...
November 12, 2009 6:02 PM
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New Estimates Say Swine Flu in U.S. Worse Than Thought
First the bad news: Revised estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that the novel H1N1 virus has spread much further in the country and taken...
November 5, 2009 3:46 PM
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Swine Flu Vaccine Distribution Dilemmas: Hey, You, No Cuts!
Concern appears to be rising at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about people in lower risk groups cutting in line to receive the limited supplies of...
November 5, 2009 3:37 PM
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Sick of Swine Flu? Here Comes H3N2
With reporting by Martin Enserink. Although the world’s attention is focused on the novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu pandemic, H3N2, a seasonal strain of influenza, has popped...
November 3, 2009 4:18 PM
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When Will U.S. Give Up Vaccine for the Poor?
It's a promise: 10% of the 250 million doses of H1N1 vaccine purchased by the United States will be donated to help poor countries. But when is still unclear....
November 3, 2009 3:22 PM
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The Challenge of Getting Swine Flu Vaccine to Poor Nations
As the H1N1 swine flu pandemic marches on, western countries have begun vaccinating their most vulnerable populations against the virus. But many countries in the developing world lack the...
November 2, 2009 4:14 PM
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Two Shots for Kids, One for Preggers: U.S. Clarifies Swine Flu Vaccine Doses, Addresses Vaccine Safety Fears
U.S. policymakers erred on the side of caution in September when they recommended that children under 10 need two doses of the swine flu vaccine to develop a strong...
October 30, 2009 5:46 PM
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Swine Flu Spread Continues to Outpace Efforts to Treat and Prevent Disease
Health officials today reiterated that the novel H1N1 virus continues to spread rapidly around temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, hospitalizing and killing an unusual number of children, young adults,...
October 28, 2009 1:46 PM
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How Swine Flu Vaccines Are Like Disco
Pandemics make strange bedfellows—in this case, public health advocates and defense hawks....
October 23, 2009 5:34 PM
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Pandemic Vaccine "Will Arrive Too Late for Many," CDC Concedes
The prospect that Americans will receive the swine flu vaccine in time to protect them from this second wave of the U.S. epidemic continues to dim. With the pandemic virus...
October 20, 2009 3:49 PM
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Novel H1N1 Continues to Wallop Younger U.S. Population
A new analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of severe disease caused by the novel H1N1 virus again emphasizes that people under 65 suffer...
October 16, 2009 3:17 PM
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Pandemic Vaccine Delivery Delayed in the United States
As the number of swine flu cases burgeons in the United States, vaccine is coming online much slower than the government had anticipated. Vaccine manufacturers have notified officials that they...
Roundup 10/13: Embracing Diversity Edition
Scientists and policymakers are meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, this week as part of the international DIVERSITAS program of biodiversity science. 300 farmers in 60 locations across Benin have...
October 9, 2009 3:40 PM
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CDC: Get Your Swine Flu Shots
As the availability of swine flu vaccine steadily increases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up its efforts to combat a growing sense of complacency...
October 8, 2009 5:51 PM
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Roundup 10/8: Around the World With Google Edition
Started last November in coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Google Flu Trends this week increased its coverage from four to 20 countries. This innovative effort...
October 6, 2009 4:25 PM
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Slowly But Surely, U.S. Swine Flu Vaccination Begins
As predicted, the U.S. government has started to deliver a small amount of swine flu vaccines to states this week, and states are wrestling with how to decide who...
September 23, 2009 4:10 PM
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Rethinking the Ingredients of Influenza Vaccines for 2010
Next winter in the Southern Hemisphere, influenza vaccines should no longer be designed to protect against the seasonal H1N1 strain as the pandemic H1N1 strain has replaced it, according...
September 21, 2009 2:05 PM
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Mixed Results of Swine Flu Vaccine in Kids
Early results from clinical trials suggest that healthy children under the age of 9 will likely need two doses of the swine flu vaccine, but those between 10 and...
September 18, 2009 4:19 PM
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New Date for First U.S. Swine Flu Vaccine Arrival
At least 3.4 million doses of swine flu vaccine will become available the first week in October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today. In one...
September 17, 2009 3:00 PM
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Countries That Have Swine Flu Vaccine Will Share With Have-Nots
In the wake of evidence that a single dose of the swine flu vaccine can protect adults, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan today to share 10% of...
September 15, 2009 4:42 PM
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FDA Approves Swine Flu Vaccines
As expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved four vaccines against the novel H1N1 virus that is causing the swine flu pandemic. None of the vaccines are...
September 11, 2009 5:04 PM
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HHS Celebrates Early Swine Flu Vaccine Results
In an effort to assuage growing concerns about the swine flu pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pulled out all stops today to broadcast the...
September 11, 2009 11:22 AM
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U.S. Swine Flu Vaccine: Good News, Bad News
An increasing number an influenza experts in the United States are worried that the wave of the swine flu epidemic that has started to hit the country may peak...
September 2, 2009 1:55 PM
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Specious Report of Bird and Swine Flu Coinfection
An Egyptian news story that is starting to receive worldwide attention about a nightmare swine flu/bird flu coinfection is inaccurate, according to officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...
August 21, 2009 3:30 PM
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Unsurprisingly Surprising Swine Flu Battle Continues
The virus causing the swine flu pandemic has spread to turkeys in Chile, slowed its spread in people in the Southern Hemisphere and in the United Kingdom, and is thriving...
July 30, 2009 4:34 PM
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CDC's Besser Moves to TV News
Epidemiologist Richard Besser, who until recently helped coordinate the nation's swine flu (H1N1) response as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will soon be reporting on...
July 29, 2009 6:14 PM
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More Canadian Pigs Catch New Flu Virus
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ), the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus infected a herd of pigs in this Canadian province. This is only the...
July 29, 2009 6:05 PM
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Advisory Group Urges U.S. Swine Flu Vaccination Program
At a meeting billed as “urgent” today in Atlanta, Georgia, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that the U.S. government launch a vaccine program against the 2009 H1N1...
July 28, 2009 4:47 PM
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Laurie Garrett Interview: U.S. Global Health Leader MIA on Swine Flu
Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City, is a media consultant’s nightmare: She cuts to the chase and...
July 28, 2009 11:12 AM
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Yet Another New Patient Zero in Swine Flu Pandemic
A baby from San Luis Potosí in north-central Mexico was likely infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus on 24 February, making this the earliest case of swine flu yet...
July 24, 2009 3:33 PM
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Swine Flu Continues to Camp Out in U.S. and Vexing Vaccine Questions Remain
The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus continues to spread in the United States, hitting particularly hard at summer camps, military academies, and other places where people from different locales gather. “It’s...
July 22, 2009 5:47 PM
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Swine Flu Vaccine Tests Move Forward
Five clinical trials of different vaccines that aim to protect against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus will soon begin in the United States, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and...
July 17, 2009 5:24 PM
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Not to Worry About Vaccine Availability, U.S. Health Officials Say
U.S. health officials tried to play down worries today that the country might be unprepared for pandemic swine flu come this fall. Vaccine producers are having trouble producing large amounts...
July 13, 2009 3:11 PM
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Pandemic Vaccine Shots Urged for Healthcare Workers
Health care workers should be first in line when vaccines against the swine flu virus are ready and approved, an expert panel at the World Health Organization concluded in a...
July 10, 2009 6:23 PM
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Pandemic H1N1 Virus in Canadian Pigs Smells Odd
Ever since Canadian officials announced in May that pigs on an Alberta farm harbored the novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu outbreak, scientists have struggled to explain its origins....
July 7, 2009 5:37 PM
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International Agencies Try to End Flu Naming Wars
Repeat after me: "Pandemic H1N1 2009." That's the new name three international agencies, including the World Health Organization, have picked to end the chronic confusion about what to call the...
July 6, 2009 10:50 AM
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Inside China's Swine Flu Quarantine System
BEIJING—China has perhaps the strictest quarantine procedures in the world to limit the spread of the Influenza A H1N1 virus—as I found out firsthand today.I’m the Asia editor for Science....
Hong Kong Case Suggests Resistant Swine Flu May Be Spreading
A third case of oseltamivir-resistant swine flu, announced today in Hong Kong, has flu experts worried that resistance to the drug is spreading. Unlike the previous two cases, the Hong...
July 2, 2009 2:49 PM
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U.S. Donates Flu Drug, White House Organizes Summit
The U.S. government will donate 420,000 treatment courses of the drug Tamiflu to help treat severe cases of influenza in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen...
Tamiflu Resistance in Swine Flu No Cause for Concern—Yet
A Danish swine flu patient has developed resistance against the most widely used influenza drug, oseltamivir. But public health experts say there is no reason to be alarmed, because resistance...
June 26, 2009 6:03 PM
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With More than a Million Cases, U.S. Prepares for Swine Flu Vaccination Campaign
At least one million people in the United States are infected with the novel H1N1 flu virus, far more than the official case count, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...
June 26, 2009 10:20 AM
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Swine Flu Strikes Hog Farm in Argentina
The A(H1N1) swine flu virus has struck a pig farm in Buenos Aires province in Argentina—the second known instance of the pandemic virus infecting pigs. The outbreak was announced in...
June 18, 2009 5:46 PM
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Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Flu
The novel H1N1 swine flu virus looks like it’s going to hang out in the United States all summer, epidemiologist Dan Jernigan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...
June 18, 2009 4:30 PM
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Second Vaccine Maker Promises Free Swine Flu Shots for Developing World
Vaccine maker sanofi-aventis plans to donate 100 million doses of its A(H1N1) pandemic vaccine, currently in development, to the World Health Organization for use in developing nations that cannot afford...
June 17, 2009 5:06 PM
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Beware of Stories About "New" Swine Flu Strain
A flurry of news reports today claim that Brazilian researchers have found a "new" strain of the novel H1N1 virus, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says...
June 17, 2009 2:34 PM
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House Approves $8 Billion for Swine Flu Pandemic
The U.S. House of Representatives last night approved $7.65 billion in new money to respond to the swine flu pandemic. The money will go toward the purchase of vaccine, antiviral...
June 12, 2009 11:53 AM
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Novartis Reports Advance in Swine Flu Vaccine Production
Novartis announced in a press statement today that it has made the first batch of vaccine against the A (H1N1) influenza virus causing the swine flu pandemic. The Swiss-based pharmaceutical...
June 11, 2009 4:20 PM
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The Continuing Mystery of How Canadian Pigs Caught the Novel Flu Virus
On 2 May, a pig farm in Alberta, Canada, made international news when officials revealed that the animals there carried that novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu outbreak in...
June 11, 2009 3:33 PM
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WHO Finally Raises Swine Flu Alert to Phase 6
The inevitable has become official. Today, the World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan announced that she had raised the pandemic alert scale to 6, the highest level, to indicate that...
June 9, 2009 5:28 PM
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Swine Flu: WHO "Really Very Close" to Using the P Word
So can we call it a pandemic yet? Nope, the World Health Organization said today. Although the A (H1N1) virus has now spread to 76 countries and seems to be...
June 8, 2009 11:57 AM
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Swine Flu: Out of Africa
Oddly, until now, no confirmed cases of the novel H1N1 virus have yet surfaced in any African country. But Egypt is now on the rosters at the World Health Organization...
New Dollars and Critique Lobbed at Swine Flu Response
On the heels of the Obama Administration's request that Congress put aside nearly $12 billion to combat the swine flu outbreak if needed, a nonprofit health advocacy group has...
June 2, 2009 2:52 PM
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Here Comes Swine Flu Phase 6, Severity 1
With a few countries in the Southern Hemisphere reporting a dramatic jump in swine flu cases, the World Health Organization is inching closer to declaring a full-scale, phase 6...
June 2, 2009 2:23 PM
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Swine Flu Hits Australia Hard
During the past week, confirmed cases of swine flu influenza in Australia have jumped from 17 to 501. The island nation now has more cases than any country outside of...
May 28, 2009 12:20 PM
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CDC Too Optimistic About Flu Peak?
On 26 May, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the swine flu outbreak in the country might have crested. But Donald Olson, a New York...
May 26, 2009 4:26 PM
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Pandemic Definition Continues to Mystify
As cases of swine flu continue to increase in several countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that the outbreak does not merit the label "pandemic." And in the United...
May 22, 2009 10:28 PM
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HHS Takes $1 Billion "Step" Toward Making Swine Flu Vaccine
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced the decision to spend $1 billion of existing funds on what a press release gingerly...
May 22, 2009 10:18 PM
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WHO Considers Revising Definition of "Pandemic"
Responding to mounting confusion, the World Health Organization (WHO) has sent the definition of a full-scale, phase 6 influenza “pandemic” to the rewrite desk. But no formal revisions have been...
May 22, 2009 6:04 PM
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First Detailed Report of New Virus's Promiscuous Past
The most detailed description yet of the origins of the novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu outbreak appears today on ScienceExpress. The study, conducted by an international team of...
May 20, 2009 6:31 PM
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Some Elderly Immune to Swine Flu?
One of the most baffling features of the swine flu outbreak is that, unlike seasonal influenza, severe disease largely does not occur in the elderly. The U.S. Centers for Disease...
May 20, 2009 6:14 PM
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When Will That Flu Vaccine Be Ready?
Despite recent news report to the contrary, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assures ScienceInsider that efforts to make a vaccine against the virus causing the swine...
May 19, 2009 4:22 PM
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A Graphic Look at Mexico's Outbreak
Mexico’s Ministry of Health regularly posts informative, detailed graphs of its outbreak that have received little prime-time exposure. Even if you don’t read Spanish, you can glean loads of tidbits...
May 19, 2009 4:04 PM
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Is a Pandemic a Pandemic?
Effect Measure, a spirited and popular blog written by anonymous public health scientists/practitioners, has an entertaining riff about the confusion over whether to call the swine flu outbreak a pandemic....
May 19, 2009 1:57 PM
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Swine Flu Vaccine May Take Longer
Add 2 months to the timetable for producing a vaccine against the virus causing the swine flu outbreak, says an advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO). It may...
May 18, 2009 3:13 PM
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Scale for Flu Warnings Overly Simplistic, Countries Tell WHO
The phasing system for pandemic influenza needs fixing, representatives of several countries told Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly meeting in...
H1N1 Rocks Japan, But WHO Says It's Still No Pandemic
The number of confirmed influenza A (H1N1) cases in Japan exploded over the weekend, going from an officially reported four—all in returning vacationers—on 16 May to 129 as of 18...
May 16, 2009 3:57 PM
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Swine Flu's Rate of Spread, Revisited
A team of European researchers has analyzed the outbreak of the novel H1N1 virus in Mexico and calculates twice as much spread per infected person as an earlier report in...
May 15, 2009 6:10 PM
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A New, New H1N1 in Mexico?
This odd exchange took place at today’s press conference with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). David Brown, The Washington Post: There’s a report that there is...
May 15, 2009 2:59 PM
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Girding for Pandemic, Europeans Order Swine Flu Vaccine
Four European countries have ordered a vaccine tailor-made for the new H1N1 influenza strain by GlaxoSmithKline. In a press release issued today, the company said it has yet to receive...
May 15, 2009 10:27 AM
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Obama Taps New York City's Health Chief to Lead CDC
President Barack Obama today named New York City’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—a post that has been...
May 14, 2009 5:07 PM
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Texan Alleges Mexican Pig Farm May Be Liable for Pregnant Wife’s Death From Swine Flu
The husband of a pregnant woman in Texas who died from swine flu last week has made the opening legal moves in what could become a $1 billion civil suit...
May 13, 2009 5:10 PM
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The Rapid Rise (and Fall?) of Controversial Theory That Lab Accident Caused Flu Outbreak
A retired plant virologist from Australia has caused an international ruckus by proposing that a vaccine-manufacturing accident may have created the virus driving the current swine flu outbreak. Many...
May 13, 2009 12:04 PM
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Exclusive: CDC's Flu Chief, Nancy Cox, Battling Fires at Home and Abroad
In the wake of a 1976 swine flu outbreak that began and ended with soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, virologist Nancy Cox was a postdoc at the U.S....
May 12, 2009 5:05 PM
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Have Antivirals Helped Prevent Flu Spread?
As yet another day goes by with the World Health Organization (WHO) not declaring that the swine flu outbreak is a full-scale pandemic, more questions are surfacing about why this...
May 12, 2009 11:12 AM
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Swine Flu: It's a Mutation, But What Does it Mean?
The virus isolated from the second swine flu patient in the Netherlands has an intriguing mutation in a gene called PB2 that could mean that the virus has become better...
May 11, 2009 6:15 PM
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Early Lessons From Mexico's Swine Flu Outbreak
The first quick-and-dirty analysis of Mexico's swine flu outbreak suggests that the H1N1 virus is about as dangerous as the virus behind a 1957 pandemic that killed 2 million people...
May 11, 2009 11:52 AM
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Is H5N1 Five Times as Bad as H1N1?
For an eclectic and even rollicking tour of thoughts about the swine flu outbreak, see Stephen Colbert's interview with Laurie Garrett on The Colbert Report. “When you heard that there...
May 8, 2009 5:06 PM
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Swine Flu Names Evolving Faster Than Swine Flu Itself
The Germans call it Schweinegrippe, the French talk about la Grippe A. The World Health Organization now calls it "influenza A(H1N1)," and so do government officials in many countries, but...
May 7, 2009 6:12 PM
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Questions Remain About the Swine Flu Infection of Canadian Pigs and the Origin of Outbreak
Canadian scientists today clarified that they still think it’s “highly probable” that a farm worker infected the Alberta pig herd found to have the virus now causing the outbreak of...
May 7, 2009 5:27 PM
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WHO To The World: Swine Flu Is Still Serious
Don’t think the worst is over: That was the message at the daily press conference of the World Health Organization this afternoon. Speaking from a special press tent in Geneva,...
May 7, 2009 12:06 PM
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The Growing Numbers on Swine Flu
The 8 May Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released today reports new details about the swine flu outbreaks in Mexico and the United States, revealing much higher numbers of suspected and confirmed cases...
Same Hotel, Different Virus
The Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong's Kowloon district became infamous in 2003 when a doctor from mainland China, sick with SARS, infected other guests who carried the virus to Canada,...
May 6, 2009 5:21 PM
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Could the Outbreak Have Started in Canada?
In keeping with the Canadian government’s apparently mistaken hypothesis that the origin of the swine flu outbreak likely had nothing to do with Canadian pigs, what if it did? On...
May 6, 2009 5:00 PM
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Plot Thickens: Farm Worker Suspected of Infecting Canadian Pig Herd Tests Negative
The pig herd infected with swine flu in Alberta, Canada, appears not to have been infected by a worker at the farm who had recently returned from Mexico with flu-like...
May 6, 2009 4:29 PM
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In Case of Pandemic: High-Tech Flu Vaccines Coming
The threat of H1N1 swine flu appears to be abating, but the virus could come roaring back later in the year, and experts are now debating whether to produce a...
May 5, 2009 7:02 PM
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A New Patient Zero*
Mexico has confirmed that a person from Mexico City infected with the swine flu virus developed symptoms on 11 March, 6 days earlier than a case that many in the...
May 5, 2009 6:37 PM
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Swine Flu: U.S. Cases Continue Climb, But Fear Declines
Although confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States dramatically climbed to 403 today—and Texas reported the first death of a U.S. resident from swine flu this afternoon—mounting evidence...
Exclusive: SARS Sleuth Tracks Swine Flu, Attacks WHO
HONG KONG—Yi Guan has plenty of experience at ground zero of an epidemic. In spring 2003, the virologist at Hong Kong University (HKU) isolated the SARS virus from masked palm...
First Pig Cases of H1N1--and Mixed Views on the Human Outbreak
The first pigs infected with the H1N1 influenza sweeping the globe have been found—but they're a long way from Mexico, the suspected origin of the virus. There’s also some optimism...
May 3, 2009 4:01 AM
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First Swine Flu Mug Shots
CDC has posted electron micrographs of H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu. ...
Exclusive: Interview With Head of Mexico's Top Swine Flu Lab
Microbiologist Celia Alpuche heads the laboratory in Mexico that has become ground zero for the country's outbreak of swine flu. Alpuche spoke to Science yesterday from her office at the...
May 1, 2009 4:21 PM
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Closest Look Yet at Outbreaks in Mexico and a N.Y.C. School
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) has posted two dispatches that offer the most detailed looks yet at two outbreaks of what's now being called swine-associated H1N1 influenza. One...
May 1, 2009 3:24 PM
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Buy Stock in Soap?
A poll that gauges how much Americans know and are concerned about the swine flu outbreak conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health finds that hand washing is up...
May 1, 2009 4:40 AM
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That Soothing Voice on Swine Flu
For the health agencies battling swine flu (recently renamed H1N1), it’s a tricky balance: Be honest and clear without setting off a panic. Officials at the World Health Organization, the...
April 30, 2009 5:52 PM
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Flu Preparations: When It's Good to Wing It
Detailed preparedness plans drawn up in the past five years have been a boon for officials fighting the outbreak of swine flu. But not everyone is reading from the same...
April 30, 2009 5:20 PM
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Searching for Margaret Hamburg
Over at The New Republic's health care blog, Jonathan Cohn is wondering why an apparently qualified expert on infectious disease—a member of the Institute of Medicine, no less—has yet to...
April 30, 2009 11:19 AM
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Ferreting Out the Swine Flu Mystery
Now a popular pet, ferrets have also become the animal model of choice for many influenza studies, as they can easily be infected with the virus and have similar respiratory...
April 29, 2009 7:33 PM
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On the Precipice of Pandemic
The World Health Organization has raised the threat of the current outbreak of swine flu from phase 4 to 5, officials announced this evening in Geneva. Phase 6 is a...
Exclusive Interview: CDC Head Virus Sleuth
Virologist Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke with ScienceInsider at length last night about the swine...
Worries and Questions Mount as Disease Goes Global
Racing to keep up with swine flu’s spread, health agencies warned this morning that the number infected is changing hourly, and the World Health Organization is eyeing an upgrade to...
As Swine Flu Spreads, Its Chances to Mutate Increase
TOKYO—Swine flu has reached Asia, with South Korea reporting its first suspected case yesterday. Like the vast majority of other cases outside Mexico so far, it is mild, but virologist...
April 29, 2009 11:50 AM
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Swine Flu Maps: The Swarm of Data
A number of maps have cropped up plotting reported cases of swine flu, but they vary in quality. Buyer beware: Much of the data comes from press reports and has...
April 29, 2009 11:08 AM
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Your Top Flu Primer Award Goes To ...
... Washington Post graphic artists Brenna Maloney and Laura Stanton, who today explicate and elucidate the way flu viruses work, and what scientists are learning specifically about this one....
Could Swine Flu Have Come From America?
HIV/AIDS could shed some light on swine flu’s origins. And what it shows upends common wisdom. A 2004 study asked where Mexicans who migrated to California for seasonal farm work...
April 29, 2009 10:33 AM
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First Confirmed U.S. Death From Swine Flu Is Visiting Mexican Boy
The Houston Department of Health and Human Services says a 23-month-old child from Texas died Monday night from swine flu. The child had recently traveled with family members to Mexico....
The Skinny on the Pig Farm Connection
Several news reports about the swine flu outbreak have pointed a finger at a massive pig farm in Veracruz, Mexico, as the potential source of the first transmission to humans....
April 28, 2009 5:40 PM
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Can Travel Advisories Halt a Virus?
That’s one question on everyone’s lips these days, with governments issuing conflicting warnings about avoiding countries hit by swine flu. But as jittery travelers reconsider planned Mexican vacations, officials at...
April 28, 2009 4:54 PM
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Several Severe Swine Flu Cases Surface in the United States
Five people with swine flu in the United States have been hospitalized, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today. Until now, only one patient in the...
April 28, 2009 12:21 PM
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Is Current Flu Vaccine Truly Impotent Against Swine Flu?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly doubts that this year’s flu vaccine will offer people any protection from the swine flu. “We don’t think that any of...
April 27, 2009 10:29 PM
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WHO Ratchets Up Pandemic Alert Level a Notch
In another signal that the world may be closer to an influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization tonight announced that it has upped the pandemic alert level from 3 to...
Will Stopping Travel Stop the Flu?
As part of its effort to slow the spread of swine flu, the U.S. government plans to issue an advisory later today for its citizens to avoid all nonessential travel...
April 27, 2009 11:44 AM
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WHO May Raise Pandemic Threat Level
The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to raise the pandemic threat level of the current swine flu outbreak within an hour. The Geneva-based organization planned to convene its Emergency...
April 26, 2009 7:54 PM
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Swine Flu Spreads, But Severity and Genetics Remain Murky
Although the spread of swine flu appears to be accelerating—and the virus is beginning to dominate global headlines—the World Health Organization (WHO) stopped short of ratcheting up the pandemic alert...
April 25, 2009 7:38 PM
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Retrospective: What Happened With Swine Flu in 1976
Infectious disease specialist Edwin D. Kilbourne, now 88 and retired, was at the center of the last swine flu scare in the U.S. In 1976, a swine flu strain swept...
April 25, 2009 3:46 PM
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CDC Looking Nationwide for More Swine Flu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that it has not found any new cases of swine flu in the country other than the eight identified...
April 25, 2009 2:10 PM
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Behind the Scenes: Navy Researchers Helped Spot Swine Flu in the United States
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA—Late on the afternoon of 16 April, 5 days before the public first learned about the current outbreak of swine flu, Michele Ginsberg received word from the U.S....
New Details Emerge on Swine Flu
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published new details about swine flu cases in the United States. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) dispatch supports earlier...
April 24, 2009 6:37 PM
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Dizzying Deluge of Swine Flu Numbers
The outbreak of swine flu in the United States and Mexico is—as is typical during the early stages of the spread of a new virus—leading to an outpouring of different...
April 24, 2009 5:33 PM
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Swine Flu Deja Vu?
For a handful of scientists, the swine flu hitting the southern U.S. and Mexico bears an eerie resemblance to another outbreak more than 30 years ago. Then, a strain of...
April 24, 2009 4:55 PM
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Swine Flu Behavior "Potentially Scarier Than the Outbreak of Avian Flu"
The level of worry about a swine flu outbreak in the United States rose a notch today, as health officials linked the virus that has infected eight people here to...
April 23, 2009 5:55 PM
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Swine Flu Infects Seven; Genetic Make-Up Has Scientists Stymied
A swine flu strain that has infected seven people in the United States since late March is an unusual hybrid that carries genetic material from four different sources, officials at...
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