May 2011
10 posts
Complex: The Australian examines children's... →
…What followed has shaken public confidence in one of the world’s most popular immunisation programs. In April last year… Professor Jim Bishop, made the unprecedented decision to ban nationally all the seasonal flu vaccines for the under-5s. Fluvax, the predominant vaccine, was triggering febrile fits in one in every 100 children – 10 times the expected rate. The side-effects, in some...
FDA opens public comment on improving... →
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the opening of a docket
to obtain information about preventive controls and other practices used by facilities
to identify and address hazards associated with specific types of food and specific processes.
FDA is establishing this docket to provide an opportunity for interested parties
to provide information and share views that will...
Congress Bans Scientific Collaboration with China... →
A two-sentence clause included in the U.S. spending bill approved by Congress a few weeks ago threatens to reverse more than three decades of constructive U.S. engagement with the People’s Republic of China.
The clause prohibits the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from coordinating any joint scientific...
infected pigs may have contaminated S. Korean... →
Bottle water produced in the northern Gyeonggi Province of South Korea may be contaminated with the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus plus other harmful organic substances, says an environmental group.
According to Citizens’ Institute for Environmental Studies, 32 FMD burial sites for more than 23,000 pigs and cows were made near four drinking plants in Pocheon and Yeoncheon. The plants in those...
Prostate Exam Deaths From ‘Superbugs’ (Bloomberg) →
(By Jason Gale, Bloomberg’s disease guy in Singapore, who was the ace-est flu reporter in Asia when we cared about flu. - m.)
Shane Greenstein only vaguely recalls being told that a prostate biopsy he had in June was negative for cancer. That’s because within two days of the exam he was in the hospital with a potentially deadly blood infection.
“It was the worst illness I have ever felt...
US on track for most measles cases in a decade... →
The United States seems to be on track to have more measles cases than any year in more than a decade, with virtually all cases linked to other countries, including Europe where there’s a big outbreak.
Already there have been 89 cases reported so far. The U.S. normally sees only about 50 cases of measles in a year thanks to vaccinations.
Health officials are reluctant to make predictions,...
“OH JUST GREAT. “A shipment of potentially infectious polio virus destined...”
– Polio virus missing after S.Africa carjacking
Incongruous Science/Writing?
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