Word: viruses
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...health officials are bracing for a resurgence of the new H1N1/09 flu virus this fall, when the influenza season kicks into high gear with the resurgence of cold weather. By October, the government hopes to have 120 million doses of vaccine ready to fight the new virus, which is currently spreading around the world in the first pandemic in more than 40 years. Already, H1N1 is hitting the southern hemisphere hard: Argentina has recorded more than 160 deaths from H1N1, second most after the U.S. That's because it's winter in the southern hemisphere, and flu infections tend...
...infections tend to go up in the cold winter months and level off in the summer? According to a study from researchers at Mount Sinai Medical School, the flu virus is more stable and able to stay airborne longer when the air is cold and dry. The Mount Sinai researchers, who tested guinea pigs, found that the spread of the virus was most prevalent when the temperature reached a chilly 41°F (5°C); infections slowly decline as the mercury rises, before stopping altogether at 86°F (30°C). (Tropical countries, where fairly constant, high temperatures...
World health officials are carefully watching the H1N1/09 swine-flu virus as it makes its way through the Southern Hemisphere, which is currently in the thick of its flu season. They are particularly interested in seeing how severely the virus affects infected people in parts of Africa, South America and Australia, since their illnesses could be a good predictor of how aggressive the virus will be when flu season returns to the rest of the world in the fall...
...H1N1/09 flu appears to be mild overall and treatable with existing antiviral therapies. But given that the virus continues to cause some serious cases of illness and death, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) isn't taking any chances. On Wednesday, July 29, the agency called an urgent meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which decides who gets vaccinated against which diseases and when. The committee was asked to generate guidelines for H1N1/09 vaccination, if and when the agency determines that such immunizations become necessary, in addition to those for seasonal flu. (Read "The Year...
...Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters on Wednesday. "It's important that they get the seasonal-flu shot. But the H1N1 outbreaks have so far spared that population. So I would tell them that their risk of illness from this virus is very low compared to that of younger people." (See the most common hospital mishaps...