Wednesday, August 02, 2006

New bird flu fears in Indonesia

Seven people from the same village have been hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, officials say.
The group is from Karo district in Northern Sumatra province, where seven members of one family died of the deadly H5N1 virus in May.

Their deaths sparked fears that the virus was mutating into a form which could pass easily from human to human, but experts later ruled this out.

Indonesia has seen more bird flu deaths this year than any other country. Read full story via bbc news

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Refugees taught how to eat American food

In a classroom on Chicago's north side, nutritionist Bindi Desai points at a sign of an obese man holding a hamburger with a pained expression on his face.
"And guess what happens?" she asks. "Inside his body there are lots of problems."

At a table, a dozen or so refugees - most of them from Africa - sit and nod. Some smile and chat among themselves. They appear to get the picture.

This workshop on how to eat American food responsibly is part of an Illinois state-funded programme to improve the nutrition of refugees who are being re-settled in the land of plenty.

"First we are most concerned about whether they will understand how to eat American food," says Shana Willis, with the non-profit refugee resettlement agency Heartland, one of the project co-ordinators.

"They did not only not understand how to eat American food, but they went immediately to the junk food and it was then that we realised, this is going to have a much more important impact than we anticipated." Read full article via bbc news

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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Indonesia bird flu deaths hit 42

Indonesia has recorded its 42nd human bird flu death, bringing the country level with Vietnam as the worst affected by the disease.
Tests by the World Health Organization showed that a 44-year-old man who died last week had the H5N1 virus, health ministry officials said.

Indonesia has registered more bird flu deaths this year than any other nation.

In contrast the outbreak in Vietnam now seems to be under control, due to a large culling and vaccination drive.

No Vietnamese deaths have been recorded in 2006. Read full story via bbc news

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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Bird Flu cluster sounds alarm bells

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is extremely worried about a cluster of recent human deaths from the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Seven people from the same family in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, died from the disease earlier this month.

WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said there was no sign of diseased poultry in the immediate area.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the virus spread from human to human, Mr Cordingley said.

But he emphasised that there was no indication the virus had mutated.

Experts are worried that if it does mutate, the H5N1 strain could become more easily transmitted between humans, leading to a worldwide pandemic of the killer disease.

The H5N1 virus has already killed more than 120 people worldwide since 2003. It has also devastated poultry stocks.

The majority of deaths have occurred in Asia, but cases in people and birds have also been recorded in Europe and Africa.

Almost all human infections so far are thought to have been caused by direct contact with sick poultry. Read full story via bbc news

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Monday, May 22, 2006

Memories of 1918 flu pandemic haunt 21st century

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As health agencies worldwide scramble to stop bird flu from becoming a pandemic that could claim millions of lives, memories of the murderous flu that swept the globe almost 100 years ago haunt the 21st century, passed on from generation to generation, or, in my case, from grandmother to granddaughter.

My grandmother lived through the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, the Great

There was little that could threaten her nerve but until the day she died, Marie Starace was afraid of two things. One was lightning. The other was "The Grip" -- the deadly flu that wreaked havoc on the Brooklyn, New York, neighbourhood where she was born and raised.

So vivid were her memories of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 that whenever she saw us with open coats and throats exposed to the cold, she would gravely warn: "Button up or you'll get the grip." When I was a teenager -- about 50 years after the horrible episode -- I had the sense to ask what this dreaded "grip" was.

"It was a terrible thing. So many people died from the grip when I was a little girl that it seemed like every family lost someone," my grandmother told me.

"It was heartbreaking to see mothers crying for their children. Some of them lost two and three children. I'll never forget one woman crying in my mother's arms because she lost her children and her husband."

"People didn't want to say when someone in their house was sick because the place would be quarantined and no one could get out to work," Granna recalled.

"Some people went out in the middle of the night to get the undertaker because they didn't want it to get around that someone in their house had died from the flu. They were afraid of being reported to the Health Department and quarantined." Read full story via yahoo news

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Five more deaths in Indonesia from Bird Flu

Five more people have died from bird flu in Indonesia, the World Health Organization has confirmed.
The deaths of the five brings Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 30.

Four of the people who died lived in northern Sumatra and were from the same family. The WHO has sent a team to the area to investigate.

An Indonesian health ministry official told Reuters news agency there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the latest cases of the H5N1 virus.

The H5N1 virus has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003. It has also devastated poultry stocks.

The majority of deaths have occurred in Asia, but cases in people and birds have also been recorded in Europe and Africa.

Almost all human infections so far are thought to have been caused by direct contact with sick poultry.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic.

Read full story via bbc news

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Death toll from bird flu has reached 103 since late 2003

The world's human death toll from bird flu has reached 103 since late 2003, the World Health Organization has said.
The latest deaths from the H5N1 strain occurred in Azerbaijan, where five have died since February, the WHO reported.

The virus cannot pass easily from one person to another but there are fears it could mutate, triggering a pandemic.

US scientists have confirmed the H5N1 virus has evolved into two genetically distinct strains, potentially increasing the risk to humans.

The team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also said this could complicate the search for an effective vaccine.
Read full story via bbc news

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UK young women risking Liver disease by "out-drinking men"

Young women are out-drinking men of the same age in the UK but in no other European country, experts are warning.

Analysis of a Europe-wide study also shows that alcohol consumption in southern Mediterranean countries is falling, but rising in northern Europe.

Liver disease is now seen in younger people, Professor Moira Plant of the University of Western England said.

She will tell a nursing conference on Thursday that alcohol is cheaper and more available than ever before.

Professor Plant, a specialist in alcohol studies, warned that if young women in Britain continued to drink in this way, that they could present problems for the health service in the future.
Read full story via bbc news

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Tens of thousands of illegal marijuana "grow-ops" remain in Canada

Frank proudly surveys the large log cabin he constructed himself, on a two-acre plot of aromatic evergreen forest he now owns.
"All this," he says, "was built on marijuana."

Over four years, Frank - not his real name - tended a patch of marijuana plants in a forest clearing about 45 minutes' walk from where his cabin now stands.

He regularly pooled his harvests with those of several other growers in the small British Columbia (BC) town in which he lives, to sell wholesale to young men from just across the border in the US state of Idaho.

Frank says he made hundreds of thousands of Canadian dollars before hurriedly leaving the business when his American buyers were arrested.


But tens of thousands of illegal "grow-ops" remain in Canada. Estimates suggest marijuana may generate up to C$7bn (£3.5bn; US$6.1bn) a year in BC, the sunny province thought to be at the heart of the industry.
Read full story via bbc news

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The 1918-1919 "Bird Flu" that killed 40 million

Health officials warn that millions could die in a flu pandemic. It would not be the first time. The Spanish flu virus that swept the world in 1918-19 is considered one of the most deadly diseases in history.
In March 1918 an army cook reported to the infirmary at Fort Riley, Kansas, with a temperature of 39.5 C.

Within two days a further 521 men had been taken sick, in what is thought to have been one of the first recorded outbreaks of what came to be known as Spanish flu.

Striking a world already devastated by war, such early warning signs were largely missed and the influenza went on to kill 40 million in a matter of months.

Scientists now believe the virus came from birds and that it bore similarities to the avian flu at the centre of the current scare.
Read full story via bbc news

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Bird Flu - Israel now confirms H5N1 strain

Israeli officials have confirmed that thousands of turkeys and chickens found dead in the south of the country had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

Tests were ordered after the dead poultry were discovered on two farms in Ein Hashlosha and Holit, next to the Gaza Strip in the western Negev desert.

Several people have been admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms.

A quarantine has been imposed around the area and thousands of birds are expected to be culled over coming days.

On Thursday, Israeli Agriculture Minister Zeev Boim said the authorities were prepared to contain the virus' spread if an outbreak was confirmed.
Read full story via bbc news

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Low carb diet health risk fears

Following a low carb diet could cause serious health conditions, doctors in the US have warned.
Medics from New York, writing in the Lancet, describe a 40-year-old woman on the Atkins diet who developed dangerously high acids in her blood.

Public health doctors writing in the journal said low carb diets were "far from healthy".

But a spokeswoman for the Atkins Foundation said the diet would not cause such health problems.

The patient treated by the New York team was obese.

She had been following the Atkins diet rigorously in order to lose weight and had taken recommended precautions, including using vitamins and other supplements.
Read full article via bbc news

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Deadly bird flu found in Denmark

The Ministry for Consumer and Family Affairs said the dead bird had tested positive after being found near Naestved, south of Copenhagen.

It comes a day after Sweden said tests showed two wild ducks found on its east coast carried H5N1.

Danish authorities have set up quarantine and surveillance zones around where the buzzard was found.

The Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research said on Thursday a sample from the tests on the buzzard would be sent to the EU laboratory in the UK for final verification.

But it confirmed in a statement the H5N1 virus had been found.
read more via bbc news

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Bird Flu: Answers to your questions

Concern is growing in the UK about the spread of bird flu from birds to humans and the possibility of the H5N1 virus mutating so it can pass easily from human to human.

The case of a cat in Germany dying of bird flu has also raised fears for pets.

The BBC news website asked two experts, a virologist and a veterinary expert, to answer your questions on the issues.
Read all answers via bbc news

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Monday, March 13, 2006

Burma has reported its first case of Bird Flu, H5N1 strain

Burma has reported what is believed to be its first case of H5N1 bird flu.

The virus was detected after more than 100 chickens died near Mandalay earlier this month, according to Than Tun, director of animal health.

But there is no evidence of human infection, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

At least 97 people have died from bird flu since the disease's resurgence in 2003, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam.Read full article via bbc news

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Monday, March 06, 2006

Bird Flu detected in cats in Austria

Austria says it has detected the potentially lethal strain of bird flu in several live cats.
The discovery, in the southern state of Styria, follows the detection of H5N1 in a dead cat in Germany last week.

That case was thought to be the first example outside Asia of the virus crossing species to infect a mammal.

However, it is unlikely the virus is spreading between cats and chances are negligible they may pass it to humans, says the BBC's Ania Lichtarowicz.

The virus has also spread for the first time to Poland, while Serbia says it has detected the strain in dead swans and has sent samples for further tests.

The H5N1 virus can be caught by humans who handle infected birds, but it is not yet known to have passed from one person to another.

However, experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic that could kill millions.
Read full article via bbc news

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Bird Flu -Around the world alerts

Much of the world is now on alert for outbreaks of the lethal strain of bird flu that is fast becoming a major avian killer around the world.

Millions of birds have died or been destroyed as a result of outbreaks in dozens of countries since the H5N1 strain emerged in South-East Asia in 2003, before spreading to Europe and Africa.

The number of cases among humans is also rising, and by mid-February 2006, more than 90 people had died from bird flu - a mortality rate of just over 50%.

The first human deaths from H5N1 outside Asia, in January 2006, heightened concern, but the World Health Organization pointed out that the deaths, in Turkey, were among people who had been in close contact with infected birds, and were not passed from human to human.
Read full article via bbc news

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Sunday, March 05, 2006

A man dies of Bird flu in China

A man who died last week in the south Chinese province of Guangdong has been confirmed by the health ministry as the country's ninth victim of bird flu.
The 32-year-old fell ill after frequenting a market in the main city, Guangzhou, and he was diagnosed as having the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Read full article via bbc news

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Bird Flu suspected - as two swans found dead in Poland

The remains of two swans found dead in Poland are undergoing tests to determine whether they had the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

If confirmed, it would mark the country's first case of the disease.

Initial tests have already shown the birds, found near the northern city of Torun, died from the H5 virus.

Polish authorities have been watching out for bird flu after outbreaks of H5N1 were reported across Europe in recent weeks.

The H5N1 strain can be caught by humans who handle infected birds, but is not yet known to have passed from one person to another.

Scientists have warned if it mutates, H5N1 could create a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
Read full article via bbc news

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

Destination detox

There is nothing, it seems, that European women would rather spend a great deal of money on than getting away from it all at a spa or health farm and as correspondent Caroline Wyatt discovers, the bill is often as painful as the rather intrusive treatments.

"Maharishi Ayurveda spa, Bad Ems, Germany
The health centre boasts more than 10,000 satisfied customers"

The brochure had a photo of a luxurious hotel, and all the buzzwords: revitalising, rejuvenating.

A detox. Well, I was not sure about a detox.

I like to tox, and I think my liver and kidneys do an admirable job, considering the challenges.

Apparently, the Maharishi Ayurveda spa offered daily full-body massages, with hot oil dribbled over the entire body, rubbed in by two people simultaneously.

I booked straightaway.

The name Maharishi rang a vague bell, but I could not think why.

The brochure had a picture of the man himself - the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - an Indian with a serene other-worldly expression and a long white beard.

I began to suspect all might not be quite what I expected when the health check questionnaire arrived from the spa a few days later.

It seemed utterly fixated on matters of a deeply personal nature. Namely my digestion.

More specifically, the exit.

How often? What did it look like? Colour? Consistency?

The questions were all of an equally personal nature.

I discovered that many Germans were rather obsessed with these matters when I worked as a geriatric nurse in Munich in my early 20s, and to my horror found out why German toilets had ledges.

So that each production could be examined in detail.
Read full article via bbc news

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