Health News

Doctors Offices May Be a Hot Spot for Transmitting Infections

People who are seen after a patient with an influenzalike illness are 31.8% more likely to return to their doctor’s office within 2 weeks with similar symptoms, new research shows. Prior research has examined the issue of hospital-acquired infections. A 2014 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, found that 4% […]

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No Flu Season Will Affect Next Year’s Vaccine Prep

Experts predicted that the 2019/20 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere would be a bad one. And then it wasn’t. The COVID-19 pandemic hit, international travel ground to a halt, physical distancing and mask wearing became more common, and the flu went away. Rachel Baker, PhD, who studies public health and infectious disease at Princeton […]

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AstraZeneca, Sputnik Vaccines Face Hurdles With Annual COVID Shots

ZURICH (Reuters) – Vaccines from AstraZeneca, Russia’s Gamaleya Institute and Johnson & Johnson fight the coronavirus with another virus, leaving scientists concerned the shots may lose potency if annual inoculations become necessary to fight new variants. So-called viral vector shots – also used by several Chinese COVID-19 vaccine developers – use harmless modified viruses as […]

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How the flu virus spreads within cities

New insights into the local transmission of seasonal influenza may be valuable for planning interventions to combat the spread of respiratory diseases within cities, according to a study published November 19, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Nicola Müller and Tanja Stadler of ETH Zürich, and colleagues. As shown with the current severe […]

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Has Covid killed off the flu?

Has Covid killed off the flu? Experts pose the intriguing question as influenza cases nosedive by 98% across the globe Many feared ‘twin-demic’ of flu, which kills thousands, and Covid-19 this winter  Thirty million people – 20 per cent more than normal – now eligible for the flu jab ‘Surveillance’ data collected by WHO shows how […]

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Flu activity low in Southern Hemisphere in June to August 2020

(HealthDay)—There was very low influenza activity during June to August 2020 in the Southern Hemisphere, according to research published in the Sept. 18 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Sonja J. Olsen, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues note that by mid to late […]