Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Skeptical justices ask tough questions about the insurance mandate

In yesterday's oral arguments, the grilling aimed at the Obama administration's lawyer by the court's conservatives raised the prospect that the law's centerpiece could be overturned.

29 Mar 2012

Outside the court: Roaring rallies, rhetoric and reviews

The second day of the momentous Supreme Court hearing on President Obama's health law ended almost exactly at noon. By 12:03, many conservative lawmakers and television commentators who had been in the packed chambers stood on the marble steps outside, saying the health insurance mandate at the heart of the law appeared to be in deep trouble.

29 Mar 2012

Pernix fourth quarter net revenues increase 74% to $21.4 million

Pernix Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.

29 Mar 2012

Adjusting ventilator to keep breath size and lung pressures lower can reduce death from lung injury

Carefully adjusting mechanical ventilator settings in the intensive care unit to pump smaller breaths into very sick lungs can reduce the chances of dying by as much as 8 percent, according to a study by critical care experts at Johns Hopkins. Study participants were evaluated for two years after their acute lung injury.

28 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 28, 2012

Today's headlines recap yesterday's Supreme Court action related to the constitutionality of the individual mandate and set the scene for day 3 of the oral arguments, which will tackle issues of severalbility and questions about the health law's Medicaid expansion.

28 Mar 2012

North Shore-LIJ's first-ever walking challenge kicks off this week

The North Shore-LIJ Health System's first-ever walking challenge, the Walk to Paris, kicked off this week with 15,000 employees lacing up their sneakers to compete for a free trip to Paris. The fitness challenge is one of many initiatives that the 15-hospital health system has rolled out to improve the health and wellness of its employees.

28 Mar 2012

New microfluidic chip more effective in detecting flu outbreaks

The H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now Boston University researchers have developed a prototype of a rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises to provide clinicians with an effective tool to quickly diagnose both seasonal and pandemic strains of influenza, and thus limit the spread of infection.

28 Mar 2012

Telenurses provide effective advice

Seven out of eight people who sought advice from a telephone helpline staffed by nurses followed the self-care advice they received, ranging from providing treatment at home to calling an ambulance, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

27 Mar 2012

National biosecurity panel to hold closed-door meeting on bird flu research

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) is scheduled this week to hold "a closed-door meeting to once again look at unpublished manuscripts describing" two studies that showed how H5N1 bird flu virus could be manipulated to become transmissible among ferrets, a model for humans, NPR's health blog "Shots" reports, noting that the meeting "will include a classified briefing from the intelligence community."

27 Mar 2012

Improved clinical quality leads to decline in quality of patients' experiences

Hospitals that adopt strategies to reduce errors and meet government requirements face an initial tradeoff between improved clinical quality and a decline in the quality of individual patients' experiences, according to new research.

27 Mar 2012

Detailed CT scan can safely and quickly rule out possibility of heart attack

A highly detailed CT scan of the heart can safely and quickly rule out the possibility of a heart attack among many patients who come to hospital emergency rooms with chest pain, according to the results of a study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session and published concurrently in the New England Journal of Medicine.

27 Mar 2012

MedImmune receives FDA approval for FluMist Quadrivalent vaccine

FluMist Quadrivalent, a vaccine to prevent seasonal influenza in people ages 2 years through 49 years, has been approved today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FluMist Quadrivalent is the first influenza vaccine to contain four strains of the influenza virus, two influenza A strains and two influenza B strains.

27 Mar 2012

Hapten licenses HPT-721 to prevent poison ivy dermatitis

Hapten Sciences Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., has licensed a compound developed by ElSohly Laboratories Inc. and University of Mississippi pharmaceutical researchers to prevent reactions to poison ivy, oak and sumac.

27 Mar 2012

Novel interventional radiology procedure zaps around complicated pancreatic tumors

Results of a study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., signal a light at the end of the tunnel for individuals with inoperable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). A new procedure called irreversible electroporation or IRE uses microsecond electrical pulses to force open and destroy tumor cells around a vast and delicate network of blood vessels of the pancreas.

27 Mar 2012

Mayo Clinic researchers join expedition to Everest

It's a natural laboratory for studying heart disease, lung problems, muscle loss, sleeping disorders and new medical technologies. It's also the highest mountain in the world. Mount Everest's extreme altitude puts climbers under the same conditions experienced by patients suffering from heart disease, obesity or advanced age. To take advantage of that, Mayo Clinic researchers are joining an expedition to Everest with National Geographic, The North Face and Montana State University.

26 Mar 2012

Gene fault linked to flu risk for hospitalization: Study finds

Researchers have found a genetic flaw that may explain why some people get more ill with flu than others. The study was reported in the journal Nature this Sunday, where researchers said the variant of the IFITM3 gene was much more common in people hospitalized for flu than in the general population. It controls a malformed protein, which makes cells more susceptible to viral infection. Experts said those with the flaw could be given the flu jab, like other at-risk groups.

26 Mar 2012

Valeant signs agreement to acquire Natur Produkt

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. announced today that Valeant has signed an agreement to acquire Natur Produkt International, JSC, a specialty pharmaceutical company in Russia.

26 Mar 2012

CSL Behring commences enrollment in SCIg PATH trial for CIDP

CSL Behring has announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the PATH study, an international clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of two different doses of subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg), compared with placebo, in maintenance treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

26 Mar 2012

USPTO issues patent to Inovio's SynCon H1N1 influenza vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. Patent No. 8,133,723, covering Inovio's SynCon universal vaccine related to H1N1 influenza.

26 Mar 2012

Researchers identify gene that influences how we respond to flu infection

A genetic finding could help explain why influenza becomes a life-threating disease to some people while it has only mild effects in others. New research led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has identified for the first time a human gene that influences how we respond to influenza infection.

26 Mar 2012