News – Page 4

Why Is Influenza Worse Than Ebola

Written on March 5, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, World News.

Despite the heavy media coverage and widespread concern surrounding the Ebola virus, Americans face a more serious health threat — influenza or as what we like to call it the Flu. “It’s complicated. It’s exotic. It’s something you hear about on the news every day,” said Dr. Edward Waltz, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University at Albany, of the Ebola virus. “Objectively, the flu...

App for Simulating the Potential Spread of the Measles Virus

Written on March 4, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, USA News.

To help the public better understand how measles can spread, a team of infectious disease computer modelers at the University of Pittsburgh has launched a free, mobile-friendly tool that lets users simulate measles outbreaks in cities across the country. The tool is part of the Pitt team’s Framework for Reconstructing Epidemiological Dynamics, or FRED, that it previously developed to simulate flu epidemics. FRED is based on anonymized U.S. census...

North Korea lifts Ebola caused travel ban

Written on March 3, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Government News, Travel, World News.

North Korea has lifted severe restrictions on foreign travel it imposed last year to keep the Ebola virus from crossing its borders, although North Korea is thousands of miles from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The already isolated country virtually closed its borders to foreigners last October, halting all non-essential visas and requiring those few foreigners allowed in to undergo three weeks of quarantine. The rules applied to diplomats,...

Fujifilm’s Flu Drug Turned Ebola Drug Avigan Proven Effective

Written on March 2, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp.’s drug Avigan, which has shown signs of efficacy against the Ebola virus, has drawn interest from about 20 countries and the company stands ready for large orders, its chief executive said. “We can provide as much as we are asked for,” said Shigetaka Komori in an interview Friday. The company has enough of the drug’s basic ingredient on hand to manufacture pills for 300,000 people and will ramp up production if necessary,...

Free of Ebola, but Nina Pham Files Lawsuit Against Texas Health

Written on March 2, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, USA News.

The 26-year-old nurse says she has nightmares, body aches and insomnia as a result of contracting the disease from a patient she cared for last fall at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. She says the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health Resources, failed her and her colleagues who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola. “I wanted to believe that they would have my back and...

Ebola Virus As ISIS Bio-Weapon?

Written on February 27, 2015. Posted in Featured, Government News, Personal Safety, World News.

ISIS may already be thinking of using Ebola as a low-tech weapon of bio-terror, says a national security expert, who notes that the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” and terror groups like it would not even have to weaponize the virus to attempt to wreak strategic global infection. Such groups could simply use human carriers to intentionally infect themselves in West Africa, then disseminate the deadly virus via the world’s air transportation system....

Asian Herb Holds Promise as Treatment for Ebola Virus Disease

Written on February 26, 2015. Posted in Featured, Health News, Science News, World News.

New research that focuses on the mechanism by which Ebola virus infects a cell and the discovery of a promising drug therapy candidate is being published February 27, 2015, in the journal Science. Dr. Robert Davey, scientist and Ewing Halsell Scholar in the Department of Immunology and Virology at Texas Biomedical Research Institute announced today that a small molecule called Tetrandrine derived from an Asian herb has shown to be a potent small...

Ebola Vaccine: Human Antibodies Target Marburg & Ebola Viruses

Written on February 26, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Science News, World News.

One step closer to Ebola vaccine: Researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and The Scripps Research Institute for the first time have shown how human antibodies can neutralize the Marburg virus, a close cousin to Ebola. Their findings, published this week in two papers in the journal Cell, should speed development of the first effective treatment and vaccine against these often lethal viruses, said...

Ebola Orphanage Worker Dies in Sierra Leone

Written on February 25, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, World News.

A Sierra Leonean who worked with children orphaned by Ebola has died of the disease himself. Augustine Baker had been admitted to an Ebola treatment centre after becoming ill last week. The orphanage where he worked is run by a UK charity in Sierra Leone and was quarantined after Baker was diagnosed with the deadly ebola virus. He was said to be in stable condition when admitted to a local treatment centre after becoming ill last week. A report...

8 of 10 Americans Polled Support Mandatory Measles Vaccines

Written on February 24, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, USA News.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows nearly 8 of 10 Americans believe parents should be required to vaccinate their healthy children against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and polio. If the children are not vaccinated, most agree the child should not be allowed to attend public school or day care. These results come as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting a total of 154 cases of measles in the country, from...