Scientific system can predict H1N1 spread, claims study

October 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Imaging can now be used as a tool for identifying severe cases of H1N1 and may play an essential role in understanding the pathogenesis of the virus, possibly leading to earlier diagnoses of severe cases in the future, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found. The researchers said that imaging revealed a severe case of H1N1 after a patient had tested negative using a nasal swab rapid antigen test.

October 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday congratulated India-born scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for winning the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and said it was a matter of great pride for the country and also a tribute to India's educational system and the teaching community. In a statement issued here, the prime minister said: "I warmly congratulate you on the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009.

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - There has been an 80 percent increase in India's scientific research output since 2000, a news study revealed Tuesday, forecasting that the country will overtake all other countries between 2015 to 2020. The study carried out by British firm Thomson Reuters that owns the news agency Reuters was released in Delhi Tuesday.

September 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Seven out of 10 Americans consider H1N1 virus a "very" or "somewhat" serious problem, a new CBS poll has found. In May, just 49 percent described H1N1 as "very" or "somewhat" serious.

September 1st, 2009 Study: Swine flu easily overtakes other strainsWASHINGTON — Put swine flu in a room with other strains of influenza and it doesn't mix into a new superbug — it takes over, researchers reported Tuesday. University of Maryland researchers deliberately co-infected ferrets to examine one of the worst fears about the new swine flu.

August 18th, 2009 LONDON - The cellphone in your pocket can reveal who are your real friends, and how you interact with them, according to a five-year-long study. The study has opened new possibilities for social scientists, epidemiologists, and other researchers to understand how people connect and interact socially.

July 13th, 2009 Study finds pig role in 1918 pandemic's evolutionWASHINGTON — History's deadliest flu pandemic, in 1918, may not have made a sudden jump from birds to people after all. New research says the pig played a big role as an influenza mixing bowl — a gene probe with lessons for tracking today's swine flu outbreak.

July 2nd, 2009 Study: New flu inefficient in attacking peopleWASHINGTON — With swine flu continuing to spread around the world, researchers say they have found the reason it is — so far — more a series of local blazes than a wide-raging wildfire. The new virus, H1N1, has a protein on its surface that is not very efficient at binding with receptors in people's respiratory tracts, researchers at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

July 1st, 2009 WHO working on formulas to model swine flu spreadGENEVA — The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is working to mathematically model the spread of swine flu in an attempt to better understand how the outbreak developed from a handful of cases to a global epidemic in less than two months. WHO brought together over 20 independent experts beginning Wednesday for the three-day meeting in Geneva.

June 20th, 2009 Washington, June 20 (ANI): The National Institutes of Health is doling out a whopping 423,500 dollars to fund a study, aimed at finding out why men don't like to wear condoms during sex. However, the funding hasn't gone down too well with government watchdogs, which say that the study is a nearly-half-a-million-dollar waste of taxpayer money.

May 11th, 2009 Rapid spread of swine flu justified warningsWASHINGTON — The number of cases of swine flu may have been several times higher than reported and the potential for rapid spread of the illness justified the World Health Organization's decision to raise the global pandemic alert, a new study concludes. While about 4,800 confirmed cases have been reported in 30 countries, the new analysis estimates there have been between 6,000 and 32,000 cases in Mexico alone.

May 11th, 2009 Rapid spread of swine flu justifies warningsWASHINGTON — A new study concludes the swine flu's potential to spread justified the World Health Organization's decision to raise the global pandemic alert. While WHO is reporting about 4,700 confirmed cases in 30 countries, the new analysis estimates there have been between 6,000 and 32,000 cases in Mexico alone.

May 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New data from Mexico and case numbers so far suggest that if the spread of H1N1 "swine flu" continues elsewhere as it has in the Americas, the virus could infect more than a billion people by July. The data also suggests that summer temperatures in temperate countries may not slow the virus.

April 28th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said late Monday that the number of people dying from an infection with the mutated swine flu virus rose slower than expected. Six people died on Saturday, five on Sunday and three Monday, Cordova said.

January 4th, 2009 LONDON - Don't waste your money buying dodgy products that claim to 'detox' your body - instead, eat healthily and trust your liver and kidneys to do the job, scientists said in a report published Monday. British science students who reviewed a range of 'detox' products - from bottled water to face scrubs - say many were 'meaningless'.