Recent News

By Region: Asia/Pacific

2009 pandemic flu death toll much higher than official worldwide estimates

(Eurekalert) A research team consisting of more than 60 collaborators in 26 countries has estimated the global death toll from the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 virus to be 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s count, which was based on laboratory-confirmed cases of this flu. The study, which appears online in PLOS Medicine, Read More »

November 27, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, International, and Public Health
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Researchers suggest China consider national flu vaccination plan with staggered timing

(Eurekalert) China should tailor its influenza vaccination strategies to account for its three distinct flu regions, according to the first comprehensive study of the country’s flu patterns conducted by a research team of Chinese and American scientists. Flu season in northern China occurs during the same period as in the world’s other northern temperate zones, Read More »

November 20, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Public Health, and Research
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Rapid Sequencing Method Can Identify New Viruses Within Hours

(DiscoverMagazine) In 2009, two teenagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo showed up at their village health clinic, vomiting and with blood in their noses and mouths — hemorrhagic symptoms of the notorious Ebola viruses. In three days they were dead. Yet it took three years for researchers to unmask the likely culprit: a brand-new Read More »

November 19, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biotechnology, Public Health, and Research
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Cambodia confirms new case of avian flu H5N1

(VaccineNewsDaily) The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Cambodia said on Friday that a new human case of the avian flu H5N1 virus was confirmed. The patient is a 10-year-old boy from Sdok Thlok village in Kampot province who was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 7 with fever, cough, sore throat, distended abdomen Read More »

November 15, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, International, and Public Health
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Typhoon Corpses Horrifying But Not a Disease Threat

(ABCNews) Corpses are lying where they died in areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, bloating and decomposing because no one is available to remove them. The sight may be horrifying, but for years people have assumed that they cause disease – a fact doctors say is simply not true. Although infectious diseases like smallpox used to Read More »