• Europe will fast-track swine flu vaccine

    Worried about the eruption of swine flu infection during the coming winter, the European drug agency is accelerating the approval process for swine flu vaccine; critics, and even WHO, worry about the potential dangers of the accelerated approval process

  • Zimbabwe's crisis lower rate of HIV infection

    Zimbabwe has been in an economic and social free fall for a while: a third of the population has fled the country; unemployment is at 80 percent; the inflation rate can no longer be calculated; social services have collapsed; the one positive aspect of this catastrophe: men are short of money to pay prostitutes or be sugar daddies and keep mistresses, leading to a decline in the rate of HIV infection

  • When will swine flu vaccine be available?

    Here are clarifications to some of the confusion surrounding swine flu: pregnant women appear more susceptible to infection; WHO estimates that by August, global production of the vaccine will reach 94.5 million doses per week; pregnant women and obese people will likely be first to be vaccinated

  • Scientists unveil new weapon in swine flu fight

    Taiwanese researchers say they have developed an organic compound which could help control the global swine flu epidemic; the compound can destroy viruses such as A(H1N1) swine flu and avian influenza

  • Judge dismisses lawsuit objecting to Kansas location of biolab

    Texas Bio- and Agro-Defense Consortium sued DHS over the department’s decision to build the new BioLab Level 4 in Kansas; judge dismisses case — but without prejudice, opening the way for the consortium to refile the lawsuit later

  • Breakthrough: Radiation protection drug developed

    American and Israeli researchers developed a drug which offers protection from radioactive radiation; the drug uses proteins produced in bacteria found in the intestines to protect cells against radiation; the FDA is expected to approve the drug within a year or two

  • H1N1 virus more dangerous than suspected

    New study says that, in contrast with run-of-the-mill seasonal flu viruses, the H1N1virus exhibits an ability to infect cells deep in the lungs, where it can cause pneumonia and, in severe cases, death

  • Death rate of swine flu difficult to measure

    To formulate an effective policy to cope with the swine flu there is a need for an accurate set of numbers about the disease’s spread and morbidity; these number are hard to come by

  • Swine flu vaccine strains grow very slowly, delaying vaccine production

    The fastest-growing of all the wine flu vaccine strains tested so far grows only half as fast as ordinary vaccine viruses; if the current pandemic behaves like the last H1N1 pandemic in 1918, the next, possibly worse waves of infection could be long over by the time vaccine contracts are filled

  • WHO: Swine flu "unstoppable"

    The World Health Organization says the swine flu pandemic has grown “unstoppable” and all nations will need access to vaccines; while most cases have been considered mild, a study released today said the virus causes more lung damage than ordinary seasonal flu strains

  • DARPA wants "plant-based production system" to help combat flu

    DARPA says that “Recent advances funded by DARPA and others have demonstrated the viability of plant-based protein expression technologies for the production and purification of cGMP-compliant medical countermeasures…”

  • Cities need to prepare for a home-made nuke

    An explosion of ten kiloton nuclear bomb in a city would be disastrous; as catastrophic as such an attack would be, it would not level an entire city, and a timely response could save many lives

  • U.S. to vaccinate millions against swine flu

    The U.S. federal government will target children this fall for pandemic flu vaccination campaign — the largest since the 1950s polio vaccination effort

  • Swine flu advances in southern hemisphere

    In the southern hemisphere it is winter, and people there are in the midst of the winter flu season; swine H1N1 virus seems to be replacing the seasonal flu viruses that circulated till now — classic pandemic behavior

  • More tests in the U.S. for Tamiflu-resistant swine flu

    A third patient has been infected with a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu; U.S. health officials are stepping up testing of swine flu cases for Tamiflu resistance