Word: influenza
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...right to pass the blame. Pathogens like the influenza virus pass like a holiday fruitcake from person to person, but you probably don't think much past the one who gave it directly to you. An infectious-disease expert, on the other hand, would not be satisfied to stop there. What about the person who passed the virus on to your colleague, the one before him and others earlier still? Contagious diseases operate like a giant infectious network, spreading like the latest YouTube clip among friends of friends online. We're social animals; we share. (See the Year in Health...
Since 1997, when six people in Hong Kong died of avian influenza - the first confirmed human victims of the deadly virus - this southern Chinese city has been the front line in the fight against a potential global pandemic that scientists warn could ultimately kill millions. Unfortunately, the bird flu virus has proven a canny, and adaptable, enemy...
...culling 80,000 birds from farms near the outbreak's locus. York said Tuesday that there were no reports of humans sickened by the virus, and that the government had not yet determined whether the birds were infected with the potentially lethal H5N1 or a less virulent strain of influenza. (See pictures of the bird...
...entire U.S. population. Unfortunately, several hundred people developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, an illness characterized by nerve damage and paralysis, after receiving the vaccination. The Ford family tried to alleviate fears by televising their flu shots, and in the end 40 million Americans were vaccinated for a strand of influenza that only had a handful of documented cases of human infection. (Read "Does the Flu Vaccine Really Protect Kids...
...Today's influenza vaccine contains three strands of the virus, as determined by the World Health Organization (WHO). A global network of scientists survey the virus's mutations over the course of a year. "They see how the virus is changing, where it's changing, and the geographic spread of the new variance," says Bridges. The WHO holds two vaccine strategy meetings each year, one for the northern hemisphere (in February) and one for the Southern (in September). As soon as the organization announces which influenza subtypes should be targeted by the vaccine, medical labs work furiously to develop...