Word: flu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...official warnings about bird flu have been growing scarier in the past few days. In a speech last Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt advised folks to stock up on tuna fish and powdered milk in case the bird flu virus mutates into a form that could easily infect people. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns recently told reporters, "It would be almost biblical to think we would be protected." Then there was Robert Webster, the noted flu virologist from St. Jude Children's Research Center, who said on national television Tuesday night that he had a three-month supply...
Sandro Galea is not your typical epidemiologist. Instead of studying microbes, he studies minds--human minds and how they might respond to an outbreak of SARS or Ebola or avian flu. "Once a virus hits the ground, there isn't time to contemplate how the public might react," says Galea. "We need to better understand why people react the way they do and how we can positively influence their behavior." The public psychology of emerging diseases is a new field of research, and Galea, 34, is one of its pioneers. A professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan...
...when they are desperately ill. "The problem is that the more irrational the public's reactions to an outbreak, the harder it becomes to control and contain the disease," says Galea. Also, the harder the economy is hit: the Congressional Budget Office recently put the potential costs of a flu pandemic in the U.S. at $675 billion-half of it caused by fear and confusion...
...Bird Flu Overhyped? Anxiety about avian flu is spreading far faster than the disease...
...Even though the big flyway maps look like they overlap, the birds themselves don't," says Dr. William Karesh, director of the field veterinary program of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Gene studies of avian-flu strains from the past 30 years seem to confirm that, with no evident commingling among the viruses. "The birds of the New World and the birds of the Old World don't share their viruses," Karesh says. "That doesn't mean it's impossible. That would be irresponsible. But it doesn't happen normally...