Word: wave
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...question now on health officials' minds is: Will there be a second wave of cases in the new year? The answer depends on whom you ask. "We took an informal poll of about a dozen of some of the world's leading experts in influenza," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters recently. "About half of them said, Yes, we think it's likely that we'll have another surge in cases. About half said, No, we think it's not likely. And one said, Flip a coin...
...viruses behave once they nestle into a host is completely unpredictable, but scientists know that in a lab dish, seasonal and H1N1 flu strains mix and match readily. "I'm thinking we may have dodged a bullet here if in fact we don't get a more severe wave coming on the heels of the current wave," says Redlener. "But we'll see what happens...
...second wave could still prove more deadly than the seasonal flu, especially for young children. To date, 189 children have died of influenza in the U.S., the majority of them related to H1N1 infection, and that number is already higher than the total number of pediatric deaths attributed to flu in 2008. Lipsitch says that if current trends hold, H1N1 may end up causing as many influenza deaths, if not more, than the seasonal flu, which kills about 36,000 Americans each year. Instead of hitting the elderly the hardest, though, most of the deaths may be among young children...
...first seven months of the pandemic, from April through mid-November, and represent a large increase over the previous estimates, which included data through mid-October and said H1N1 had killed 4,000 and infected 22 million. But experts said the jump was not surprising, given that the current wave of disease was peaking in early November...
...looming concern over another winter wave of flu is all the more reason, says Lipsitch, to continue aggressive antiflu efforts, from washing your hands to covering your cough and getting vaccinated. In some states, including New York, there is now enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone over six months old, and not just those in priority groups. "We would expect that prior exposure to a similar strain in the form of a vaccine will provide some priming for future exposures, even if the virus changes a bit," says Lipsitch. In other words, the more people who are vaccinated this year...