MicrobeWorld

“Containment is no longer a feasible option,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director general of the World Health Organization, announced Monday night in Geneva after a meeting of the agency’s emergency committee on the spreading swine flu virus. “The world should focus on mitigation. We recommend not... Read More

Researchers from Durham University’s Centre for Bioactive Chemistry are developing methods that show how proteins interact with cell membranes when a virus strikes. Using their approach, the team hopes to find new ways to disrupt and disarm ‘enveloped viruses’ before they spread in our bodies.
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There is no vaccine for the current strain of swine flu - at least not yet. However, federal health authorities said two antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, may play a key role in the response to the outbreak because they are in wide supply and, based on laboratory tests, appear to be effectiv... Read More

Bacteria that normally reside on the skin of healthy people can cause serious infections in premature babies. A group of researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now found an explanation for why a certain kind of staphylococcus can attach itself to the skin and qu... Read More

A new study by University of Maryland researchers suggests that the potential for an avian influenza virus to cause a human flu pandemic is greater than previously thought. Results also illustrate how the current swine flu outbreak likely came about.

As of now, avian flu viruses can infect... Read More

The CDC's all in one Swine Flu website with resources, updates, guidelines and data. Read More

"The importance of fatty acid biosynthesis to bacterial survival has made the pathway fertile ground for antibiotic targets, and at least three companies are pursuing compounds that block the process. French researchers, however, have challenged the approach with a paper in Nature that describes... Read More

Swine flu is sweeping—if not the nation, then at least the nation's media. But what is special about this virus and what, if anything, should ordinary citizens do about it?

The new flu, which has elements of pig, bird and human flu viruses in it, has been circulating for at least a month in M... Read More

Turns out reports that Swine Flu is a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains may be inaccurate. Frome Wired.com - "The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that’s fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wire... Read More

From Sciam: "Influenza's unpredictability has stymied efforts to create a universal vaccine that could be mass-produced in advance of a pandemic threat and used to treat a variety of different virus strains. Instead, drug companies annually try to predict which strains are most likely to circula... Read More

The New Scientist has put together a nice collection of articles and information about the swine flu on it's site. Read More

Author Steven Johnson discusses The Ghost Map, his book about a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities and modern society. Read More

The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the swine flu outbreak is moving closer to becoming a pandemic, as the United States reported the first swine flu death outside of Mexico, and Germany and Austria became latest European nations hit by the disease.

In Geneva, WHO flu chief Dr... Read More

Blogger Stephan Zielinski has taken the decoded genomic sequence for Swine Flu and has set it to music using a complicated algorithm. "Each beat corresponds to one amino acid, and the piece is in 3/4 time, so each six measures would correspond to five turns around the alpha structure. Amino aci... Read More

Amid the uncertainty over whether this swine flu outbreak will expand from a serious Mexican epidemic into the global pandemic long expected by public health authorities, one thing is certain. As events unfold, the public will know more about the viral disease, its progress through human populat... Read More

The swine flu virus that is smoldering in this country and triggering a full-blown outbreak in Mexico is one of a growing number of animal pathogens to jump the species barrier -- and may be the microbe that jumpstarts the first globe-circling pandemic of the 21st century, experts said Tuesday. ... Read More

Alarmed by the spread of a new swine flu virus, airports around the world have rushed to install temperature scanners to pick out the sick, but the microbe is proving too clever for modern technology.

Experts say an infected person can easily pass through these heat sensors without detection ... Read More

Inspired by President Clinton’s vision to encourage the next generation of leaders and philanthropists to address the challenges of global interdependence, the William J. Clinton Foundation Millennium Network seeks to engage individuals, age 45 and younger, in the work of the Clinton Foundation.... Read More

The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as world health officials said they suspect American patients may have transmitted the virus to others in the U.S. Most people confirmed with the new swine flu were i... Read More

Two new swine flu cases were confirmed in Israel and as many as 11 in New Zealand, bringing the number of countries with confirmed cases to at least seven on Tuesday. But all, with the exception of Mexico, said the patients were recovering or had been hospitalized with only mild symptoms, leavin... Read More