Patrolling the flu’s – December 2006
January 1, 2007 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Merry December … The month/year is almost over and a lot has happened, flu-wise that is. And that to me is not good news. Here is a recap of how December flew by -
Seasonal flu and related illnesses
A lot of news and posts focused on the common cold and seasonal flu. It is flu season after all, in the northern hemisphere. Research indicated that a simple cold can harm post-surgery transplant lung patients. Now how do you know if you have the colds, flu or sinusitis? Here is how. Also, beware of whopping cough – it has symptoms which start like a cold. Chicken soup is order of the day. It’s one of those comfort foods that help our immune system. Other good-for-flu foods are listed here. Uncommon cures for the common cold may work for some, while cause harm for other users, like that Echinaceae.
Bird flu/H5N1
Are things getting better, or worse? The world has seen more outbreaks this month than in the last few months. A study modeled that 62 million humans could die of flu pandemic. South Korea had three outbreaks one after another. Later, another Korean and a Vietnamese outbreaks made things worse. Jordan was also hit bad this month. Four thousand chickens died in France but it was not caused by H5N1. These recent outbreaks caused concern whether the current bird flu epidemic have really been put to control. The CDC was lambasted for not having a centralized plan for the pandemic. Now, the CDC will award a large sum of money to several companies to develop faster detection methods. The agency also worked with bloggers this month to better educate the public on bird flu. More international agencies are also joining forces.
Promising hopes for treatments against H5N1 include these good news – A new bird flu gel will be on the market next year, Research also points that delayed treatment of infection can still help patients.
It seems a bird flu virus can “live” forever in the glacier .
Influenza M29, is this for real or not? Just read this then.
Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, H5N1, seasonal flu, research, vaccines, common cold
