World Wide Diseases
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs),
Mad Cow Disease, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile Virus, Tuberculosis
The year 2005 through 2010

The year 2005.


• 2/1/2005 - U.S. adds viruses to list of agents that cause cancer by Associated Press.
      Washington - The federal government is adding viruses to its list of known or suspected causes of cancer, including hepatitis B and C (liver cancer) and a third virus (papillomavirus - cervical cancer) that causes sexually transmitted diseases.    Lead, X-rays, gamma rays and compounds in grilled meats also are joining the list.    Gamma rays are used in medicine, the nuclear power industry, the military, scientific research and various consumer products.    Nuetrons are used in medicine and research.    1-Amino-2,4-dibro-moanthraquinone, is a vat dye used in the textile industry.    Cobalt sulfate used in electroplating and electrochemical industries; as a coloring agent for ceramics; a dying agent in inks, paint, varnishes and linoleum; and in animal feed.    Diazoaminobenzene used to make dyes and promote adhesion of natural rubber to steel.    MelQ, MelQx and PhlP, heterocyclic amine compounds formed when meats and eggs are gooked or grilled at high temperatures, and also found in cigarette smoke.    Lead and lead components used to make lead-acid storage batteries, ammunition and cable covering, paint, glass, ceramics, and as a fuel additive and in some cosmetics.    Napthalene used in industrial chemicals, moth repellants and toilet bowl deodorants.    Nitrobenzene used in the production of aniline, a poisnous liquid used to make dyes, resins, rubber additives and agricultural products.    Nitromethane used in specialized fuels and explosives.    4,4-Thiodianiline used in the preparation of several dyes.
• 2/12/2005 - N.Y. man's HIV found to resist treatment by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press.
      New York - New York's first diagnosed case of highly drug-resistant HIV in a person never treated for the virus is "a wake-up call" to anyone who has unprotected sex.    The patient, a man in his mid-40s who had unprotected sex with other men, contracted a strain of HIV that is "difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS with in two to three months," said the health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden.    HIV can take as long as 10 years to develop into AIDS.    They are searching for his sexual partners, and his risky sexual behavior and his use of methamphetamine, which reduces inhibitions were against him.    His HIV did not respond to three of four classes of the most commonly prescribed anti-retroviral medications.    He is now receiving a fourth "cocktail" in hopes that it will be effective.
• 2/22/2005 - Flu virus from deadly family by Paul Recer, Associated Press.
      Washington - The avian flu now spreading in Asia is part of what is called the H1 family of flu viruses.    It is a pathogen that is notorius in human history.    In 1918, H1 or the Spanish Flu appeared and 20 to 50 million died worldwide (500,000 in the U.S.).    In 1957, the Asian flu was an H2 and 2 million dead worldwide (70,000 in U.S.), and the Hong Kong flu in 1968 was an H3 resulting in 1 million deaths (34,000 in the U.S.).    There had been small appearances of the H1-type of avian viruses in other years, but nothing like the H5 now rampaging through Asia, known now as H5N1.    Most scientists expect this flu virus will genetically change into a flu that can be tranmitted from person to person.    This could be a new strain to which the human population has no immunity, because no one has ever been exposed to it.    The government has ordered 2 million doses of vaccine that would protect against the known strains of avian flu.
• 3/1/2005 - New multiple sclerosis drug is withdrawn by Mark Jewell, Associated Press.
      Boston - The makers of Tysabri, a new drug used to treat multiple sclerosis, are suspending sales after one patient died and another developed a serious disease of the central nervous system, after both used it and another drug called Avonex.    The biotechnology companies Biogen Idec Inc. and Elan Corp. suspended supplying and advised doctors to suspend prescribing it.    The FDA approved Tysabri, which was called Antegren during clinical trials, in November in an accellerated process after a study showed it reduced MS relapses by 66 percent.    About 5,000 patients have received the drug since then.
• 3/4/2005 - AIDS could kill 80 million by 2025 by Anthony Mitchell, Associated Press.
      Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - More than 80 million Africans might die from AIDS by 2025, the United Nations said in a report, and infections could soar to 90 million or more than 10 percent of the continent's population.    The number of Africans who will die from AIDS is likely to top 67 million in the next two decades even with massive funding and better treatment.    Presently 6,500 people are dying each day.
• 4/17/2005 - Experts fight virus in Angola - Marburg gruesome, difficult to control - by The New York Times.
      Uige, Angola - For nearly four weeks, teams of health experts have been trying to set up a rescue operation in this town of windowless, crumbling buildings with no running water, intermittent electricity, poor sanitation and a perennially jammed telephone network.    They are trying to contain the world's worst outbreak of one of the world's most frightening viruses, known as Marburg.    But with the death toll rising every day, no one is predicting success soon.    A cousin of Ebola, the Marburg virus has erupted periodically in Africa in sudden gruesome epidemics, only to disappear just as mysteriously.    This time it has struck with a vengeance, so far killing 90 percent of the infected.    Death toll stands at 210 - including some of the doctors and nurses caring for the sick.    The virus is highly contagious.    Marburg spreads through blood, vomit, semen and other bodily fluids.    Even a cough can prove fatal if a few drops of spittle hit someone else.    Corpses teeming with the virus, are especially dangerous.
• 5/15/2005 - As mysteriously as it appeared, SARS seems to have disappeared from China by Jim Yardley, The New York Times.
      Beijing - Two and half years after SARS hit southern China it has disappeared for the moment without one case in 2004.    China had ordered a nationwide removal of civet cats from restaurants and wildlife markets concluding the animal was the primary cause of the outbreaks.
• 5/15/2005 - Strain of bird flu discovered in pigs by AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - Indonesian researchers have found a strain of bird flu in pigs on the densely populated island of Java, raising fears the virus could more easily spread.    Scientists identified the strain found in the pigs as H5N1, the same version of the virus that has jumped from chickens to humans.    The WHO had urged scientists to examine other mammals, and pigs which are genetically similar to people.
• 5/28/2005 - Blindness blamed on impotence drugs by Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press.
      Washington - The FDA is investigating reports of blindness among dozens of men who used Viagra and other impotence drugs Cialis and Levitra.    Although vision loss can be linked to the same illness that lead to impotence.    The manufacturers of the drugs will be required to put that on the labels.    Sudden vision loss can occur when blood flow to the optic nerve is blocked, a condition called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.    Only 43 reports were made even though 23 million men have used the product since its approval in 1998, according to maker Pfizer Inc.
• 6/14/2005 - HIV cases surpass 1 million in nation by Daniel Yee, Associated Press.
      Atlanta - More than a million Americans are believed to be living with the virus that causes AIDS.    Although better medicines are keeping more people with HIV alive, the government has failed to stop the AIDS epidemic by their stated goal of 2005.    Black men who have sex with men are 47-51 percent, white is at 32-34 percent, and Hispanic is 15-17 percent of the 1 million.    It is 74 percent male and 26 percent female.    Male sex with male is 45 percent of the cases, 27 percent is heterosexual contact, and 22 percent injection drug use.
• 8/5/2005 - Avian flu virus likely to be headed to Europe by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times.
      Moscow - Russian authorities, struggling to contain an outbreak of avian flu that has killed thousands of birds in Siberia, admitted that a spread of the virus to Europe seems inevitable.    The infection is picking up momentum, and heading westward, and fear is new chances of a major outbreak among humans.    Russian authorities claim the virus will spread along the flyways of migratory waterfowl, which in the next month or two will begin flying out of Siberia along the Volga River, and eventually the Balck Sea and Southern Europe.    Large numbers of wild waterfowl have died on Siberian lakes, in addition to domestic geese and chickens.
• 8/26/2005 - Flu pandemic inevitable expert on viruses fears by David Brown, The Washington Post.
      Washington - Four decades ago, Robert Webster a young microbiologist from New Zealand while in London showed that the microbe that swept the globe in 1957 as "Asian flu" resembled the strains of virus carried by certain birds in the years before.    His hunch that the pandemic strains of this century were hybirds of bird and human flu viruses was correct.    He sees the strain of A/H5N1 spreading since 1996 as the same virus which has killed 55 percent of the 112 people who have been infected.    This virus is not just replicating in the throat and lungs, but this one can replicate in many other organs, including the liver, intestines and brain, a whole-body infection.    He believes this virus pandemic is just inevitable.    Influenza A has only 10 genes and requires more than 10 genes to replicate itself and spread.    If two different viruses find themselves in the same cell they can mutate, the more this happens, the more it becomes dangerous.
• 9/16/2005 - Mice carrying bubonic plague missing by AP.
      Newark, N.J. - Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory at Public Health Research Institute, which conducts bioterrorism research for the government about two weeks ago.
• 10/6/2005 - 1918 pandemic tied to strain of bird flu by Gina Kolata, The New York Times.
      The 1918 influenza virus has been reconstructed and found to be a bird flu that jumped directly to humans.    The scientists used lung tissue from two soldiers and an Alaskan woman who died in the pandemic, and followed the genetic sequence, synthesized the virus using the tools of molecular biology, and infected mice and human lung cells with it.    Their findings reveal a small number of genetic changes that might explain why this virus was so lethal.
• 10/14/2005 - Tests confirm avian flu virus killed birds in Turkey by Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times.
      Rome - Thousands of birds that died in Turkey succumbed to the same avian influenza virus that has ravaged southeast Asia.    The appearance of the virus in Europe marks the first time it has been observed outside Asia.    Some suggest that adjacent countries and African nations will be next rather than Western Europe, because the virus is traveling with migratory birds moving south for the winter.    It has moved into Mongolia, Western China, Russia and Kazakhstan.
• 10/16/2005 - Bird flu arrival prompts quarantine - Romanian officials take quick action - by AP.
      Bucharest, Romania - Romanian authorities quarantined an eastern region.    Poland's government banned the sale of live birds at open-air markets and ordered farmers to keep poultry in closed quarters.    The birds next stop will be the Black Sea an important stop for migratory birds.    The European Union has banned all poultry imports from Turkey and Romania.
• 10/20/2005 - Early tests show bird flu found south of Moscow by Judith Ingram, Associated Press.
      Moscow - Preliminary tests on fowl from a region south of Moscow bolsters signs that the virus might be spreading across Siberia to the Mediterranean.    This could mean that the bird flu would move to the Middle East and vunerable Africa as well.    This could be the first appearance of the virus in European Russia, west of the Ural Mountains.
• 10/23/2005 - Thousands of birds ordered killed amid flu worries by AP.
      Zdenci, Croatia - Authorities in Croatia began killing thousands of domestic birds and and ordered disinfection for a large area near a national park where six swans were found dead from bird flu.
• 11/5/2005 - China , Vietnam report new bird flu outbreaks by AP.
      Beijing - China and Vietnam reported new bird flu outbreaks in poultry despite massive prevention efforts.
• 12/2/2005 - March, rememberances mark World AIDS Day by Nafi Diouf, Associated Press.
      Fatick, Senegal - President Bush reaffirmed America's commitment to fight the deadly disease around the world.    AIDS epidemic on rise despite some progress, in 1985 2 million people had HIV, in 2005 40.3 million have it.
• 12/4/2005 - State of emergency ordered for 1st bird-flu outbreak by AP.
      Kiev, Ukraine - Ukraine recorded its first bird flu outbreak prompting the president to declare a state of emergency where more than 1,600 chickens and geese have died.    Dead birds found during the past two months in the Black Sea peninsula tested positive for the H5 bird flu.
• 12/7/2005 - China confirms fourth case of bird flu in a month by AP.
      Beijing - A new human case of bird flu has been confirmed in China's eastern province in Anhui, its fourth since last month.    China has reported 25 cases of bird flu in poultry since Oct. 19.    It has vaccinated tens of millions of chickens, ducks and geese to try to prevent further outbreaks.
• 12/10/2005 - Thai boy, 5, is second recent victim of bird flu by AP.
      Bankok, Thailand - A 5-year-old boy became Thailand's second bird flu fatality in two months, while Vietnam announced two new outbreaks and China its fifth human case.
  
      2005 was definitely the 'Year of the Bird' flu in China and Southeast Asia, jokingly, but it has not stopped it's path yet.
  
  The year 2006.
  
  
• 1/5/2006 - Two cases of bird flu reported in Turkey by AP.
      Ankara, Turkey - A 14-year-old farm boy who died after developing pneumonia-like symptons has tested positive for bird flu, Turkey's health minister Recep Akdag said.    If confirmed in further tests, it would be the first human death from the ailment outside east Asia.    The boy's sister, who is hospitalized in serious condition, also tested positive for bird flu as was another sibling is suspected of having the disease.
      On January 8^th a British laboratory confirmed the children were infected with the H5N1 virus, the third sibling has died.    The WHO sent a team to their village to determine whether the disease was spread from animals or other humans.
• 1/9/2006 - Bird flu may be spreading in Turkey - 3 suspected cases reported in capital - by AP.
      Dogubayazit, Turkey - Fears rose that a deadly strain of bird flu was spreading after the test showed two children and an adult tested positive in Ankara, the capital.    The WHO cautioned that the strain so far has only been confirmed in humans who were in close and prolonged contact with fowl.    They are monitoring the virus for fear it could mutate into a deadly form for humans.    The 14 and 15 year-olds did die from the ailment.    The WHO stated that the children died from playing with dead chickens, and as of today 10 have been suspected cases detected, and others in close contact were hospitalized and tested.    Birds in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive for H5N1, which killed 74 people in East Asia.
• 1/10/2006 - Study suggests bird flu is less lethal than thought by AP.
      Chicago - As bird flu cases rise at a disturbing pace in Turkey, new research offers a bit of hope: It's likely that many people who get it don't become seriously ill and quickly recover.    The symptoms are mild and that close contact is needed for transmission to humans    The study suggest that the virus is more widespread than thought.    In countries like Vietnam more than 80 percent had poultry in their households.    The WHO reported that more than 140 cases linked to bird flu since January 2004 have been severe - killing more than half the patients.
• 1/11/2006 - Europe jittery as Turkey races to stop outbreak of bird flu by AP.
      Ankara, Turkey - Turkey raced to contain an outbreak of bird flu by destroying 300,000 fowl and blaring warnings from loudspeakers, after test showed that at least 15 people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain, which is a record for such a short time.    Only two deaths have been reported.    European governments stepped up border checks and sprayed Turkish trucks with disinfectant.
• 1/17/2006 - Officials say fourth child has died from bird flu by AP.
      Ankara, Turkey - A 12-year-old girl who was hastily buried was infected with the bird flu the fourth to die and the country's 20^th human case.    Experts were doing test in the western city of Istanbul, which is at the doorstep of Europe.
• 1/18/2006 - World health officials say stopping spread of bird flu will be costly by The New York Times.
      Beijing - Top health officials said that governments will have to spend heavily for years to prevent bird flu from spreading widely among humans.    Beijing is expected to produce pledges of $1.2 to $1.5 billion to combat bird flu, and also looks to sponsors from the EU, World Bank and the United States.
• 1/19/2006 - U.S. pledges $334 million to help fight bird flu in Southeast Asia by AP.
      Beijing - The world pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu and prepare for a potential pandemic.    The U.S. pledged $334 million, the EU $261 million.    At this time China reported its sixth human death.
• 1/31/2006 - Bird flu surfaces in north Iraq; girl dead - Finding prompts killing of poultry - by AP.
      Raniya, Iraq - Iraq confirmed its first case of bird flu virus in the Middle East with the death of a 15-year-old Kurdish girl.    This started a large-scale slaughter of domestic birds as the WHO formed an emergency team to try to contain the disease.
• 2/7/2006 - Rare strain of chlamydia infecting gay men by AP.
      Washington - A bad strain of chlamydia not usually seen in this country appears to be spreading among gay and bisexual men, an infection that can increase their chances of getting or spreading the AIDS virus.    Called LGV chlamydia, this sexually transmitted disease has caused a worrisome outbreak in Europe, where some countries have confirmed dozens of cases.    There have been only 27 cases in the U.S. since they warned everyone about it.    This illness is incredibly hard to diagnose, since few clinics and labs can test for it, it can be mistaken for other illness, such as irritable bowel syndrome.
• 2/9/2006 - Bird flu virus found in Nigeria - Help sought to curb spread of disease - by AP.
      Lagos, Nigeria - Africa's first outbreak of the bird flu was reported in a commercial farm in Nigeria (Kaduna) that raised chickens, geese and ostriches, and 46,000 birds were slaughtered.    The health officials called for help in the world's poorest continent, where governments are ill-equipped to combat it.    Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 130 million people, said they would halt the flow of any sick birds to unaffected zones.    Sub-Saharan Africa, with about 600 million of the world's poorest people are also not able to deal with a major health crisis.
• 2/10/2006 - Deadly strain of bird flu found in two more states by AP.
      Abuja, Nigeria - The deadly H5N1 strain has been found in two more Nigerian states, Kano and one in adjoining Plateau.    At present no human infections have been reported.
• 2/11/2006 - 2 thought killed by bird flu, 1 in China, 1 in Indonesia by AP.
      Beijing - Health authorities reported that two women were killed by bird flu, one in China and the other in Indonesia.    Azerbaijan, along the Capsian Sea, became the latest country to report an outbreak of the disease among fowl in wild ducks and swans, and Nigeria said the virus had spread there, too.
• 2/12/2006 - Deadly bird flu spreads to Italy, Greece; Nigeria investigates possible case by AP.
      Rome - Bird flu has reached Western Europe, with Italy and Greece announcing that they have detected the H5N1 strain in dead swans.    It has also been confirmed in swans in Bulgaria.    They also are investigating whether the deadly strain in Nigeria has spread to humans after two children were reported ill.    Most human deaths so far have been linked to contact with infected birds.    The risk is less if it is in wildlife than if it is in poultry.
• 2/14/2006 - Nation ignores advice on preventing spread of bird flu by AP.
      Lagos, Nigeria - Nigeria ignored international recommendations for stopping bird flu, keeping poultry markets open and letting people move their birds around most of the country unrestricted..
• 2/15/2006 - 135 wild swans have died of bird flu, Iran says by AP.
      Iran said that 135 wild swans died of bird flu in marshlands near the Caspian Sea in the country's first case of the spreading virus, and officials in Germany and Austria said the virus apparently had reached there as well.    Bird flu has killed at least 91 people since 2003, according to the WHO.
• 2/18/2006 - Patch vs. pill: FDA study looks at risks by Randolph E. Schmid, AP.
      Washington - Risks of blood clots in legs and lungs are twice as high for women using the birth-control patch (Ortho Evra) instead of the pill, says a study reported by the drug maker (Ortho Women's Health & Urology), the Raritan N.J.-based company owned by Johnson & Johnson, and the FDA.    The FDA did not promote immediate action, but urged women to discuss the risk with their physicians.
• 2/18/2006 - Bird flu found in Egypt as virus keeps spreading by AP.
      Cairo, Egypt - Tests confirmed the bird flu has reached Egypt, and France reported a probable first case and the U.N. voiced growing concern about its spread through West Africa.
• 2/17/2006 - Bird flu confirmed in fowl in India and France by AP.
      Bombay, India - India and France confirmed their first outbreak of the bird flu among fowl.    India is planning to destroy a half-million birds.    Tens of thousands of chickens have died from bird flu in recent weeks in western India.
• 2/18/2006 - Initial tests on Ebola vaccine go well by AP.
      The first vaccine designed to prevent infection with the lethal Ebola virus has passed initial safety tests in humans and has shown promosing signs that it may protect people from contracting the disease.
• 2/20/2006 - Is bird flu part of a new trend? - Humans increasingly at risk from animals, experts say - by Andrew Bridges, AP.
      St. Louis - Human risk being overrun by diseases from the animal world, according to researchers who have documented 38 illnesses that have made that jump over the past 25 years.    That's not good news for the spread of bird flu, which experts fear could mutate and be transmitted easily among people.    There are 1,407 pathogens - viruses, bacteria, parasites, protozoa and fungi - that can infect humans, 58 percent come from animals.    Scientists consider 177 of the pathogens to be "emerging" or "re-emerging."    Most will never cause pandemics.
      Experts fear bird flu could prove to be an exception.    The goal is to contain it in the animal world, because once it gets into the human side, you're dealing with vaccines and antiretrovirals, which is a whole new realm.    Humans have always been attacked by novel pathogens, for millennia, but it happens much faster in modern times.
• 2/20/2006 - Scientists reverse diabetes in monkeys using pig cells by Maura Lerner, Minneapolis Star Tribune.
      Minneapolis, Minn. - Researchers at the University of Minnesota announced they were able to reverse diabetes in monkeys by transplanting insulin-producing cells from pigs.    Some are calling it a milestone that could transform the lives of millions of people.    The goal is to provide an endless supply of cells to replace the ones that don't work in diabetics.    Human trials are at least three years away.    The study showed that pig cells can cure animals that are one step away from humans, according to Dr. Bernhard Hering, who led the research as director of the Islet Transplant program at the university.    Diabetic monkeys were injected with pig islet cells, which make insulin, and survived without insulin shots for up to six months.
• 2/20/2006 - Chickens killed to curb spread of bird flu by AP.
      Navapur, India - Health officials and farm workers in protective clothing began slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens in western India.    Europe said consumption has fallen and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.    Germany ordered some birds killed on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, and the number of deadly flu cases in Italy rose to 16.
• 2/26/2006 - Chirac tells the French not to panic over bird flu by Elaine Ganley, AP.
      Paris - French President Jacques Chirac urged consumers not to panic, hours after the government announced the EU's first outbreak of bird flu in commercial poultry.    He said the virus is automatically destroyed by cooking.    France is the premier poultry producer among the EU's 25 nations.    The virus has decimated a farm of more than 11,000 turkeys at Versailleux.
• 3/1/2006 - German cat succumbs to bird flu on Baltic island - Human cases rise to 173 worldwide - by AP.
      Berlin - The bird flu has been found in a cat in Germany, the first time the virus has been identified in an animal other than a bird in central Europe.    Health officials urged people to keep their pets indoors, where birds infected by H5N1 strain have been found.    The cat is believed to have eaten an infected bird.    The WHO raised its official tally of human bird flu cases worldwide to 173, including 93 deaths.    Scientists are concerned about the bird flu infecting pigs, because swine can also become infected with the human flu virus.    The fear is the two viruses could swap genetic material and create a virus that could set off a pandemic.
• 3/7/2006 - Bird flu called top challenge - Airborne, its threat surpasses AIDS - by Alexander G. Higgins, AP.
      Geneva - The bird flu poses a greater challenge to the world than any infectious disease, including AIDS, and has cost 300 million farmers more than $10 billion in its spread through poultry around the world, the WHO said.
      U.S. health officials have authorized the development of a second vaccine to combat the virus, at present we have several million doses of the first bird flu vaccine based on a sample of the virus taken from Vietnam in 2004.    Austria reported that three cats have tested positive for bird flu.    Poland reported its first outbreak in wild swans.    The WHO now has 175 confirmed cases and 95 of them have died.
• 3/11/2006 - Two children die of bird flu; nation's toll now 22 by AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - Indonesia reports that two children have died of the bird flu, bringing the country's death toll to 22.
• 3/13/2006 - Deadly strain of bird flu found in duck on farm by AP.
      Yaounde, Cameroon - Cameroon has become the fourth African country to be struck by the bird flu virus, in a duck found near the border of Nigeria.
• 3/14/2006 - Case of mad cow found in Alabama by AP.
      Washington - A cow in Alabama has tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said, confirming the third U.S. case of the brain-wasting ailment.    The cow did not enter the food supply and was killed and buried.
• 3/14/2006 - Deadly bird flu strain reported; 112 chickens dead by AP.
      Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar reported its first cased of bird flu, and there was a high risk poultry in Afghanistan were also infected.    The outbreak in northern Myanmar resulted in a 112 chickens dying.    New cases have been reported in Poland and Greece.
• 3/17/2006 - Deadly bird flu found in Afghanistan, Sweden by AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - Tests have confirmed the first outbreak of bird flu in Afghanistan, and Sweden.    In India, health workers slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens in dozens of villages to contain it.
• 3/18/2006 - Bird flu suspected in Israel by AP.
      A worker dumped dead turkeys into the ground for burial in the Israeli community of Sde Moshe.    About 11,000 turkeys have died recently in Israel.    Tens of thousands of turkeys were ordered destroyed.
• 3/23/2006 - Why humans don't spread bird flu by AP.
      New York - Scientists believe they have found the reason why bird flu does not spread easily between people.    The virus prefers to infect cells in the lung instead of areas like the nose and windpipe, so its not easily coughed or sneezed into the air.    That behavior could change if the virus mutates.    Presently more than 180 people are known to have been infected.
• 3/24/2006 - Survey sees rise of drug-resistant TB - First-line, second-line drugs are ineffective - by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - Health officials said that they are seeing an increase around the world in tuberculosis infections resistant to both first- and second-line antibiotics used against TB.    It's basically a death sentence since there are no new drug for immediate use.    The CDC and WHO claims that one in 50 TB cases resist the present drug treatment.
• 3/26/2006 - Dead Shanghai woman tests positive for bird flu by AP.
      Beijing - A woman who died in Shanghai tested positive for the bird flu, China's 11^th human death.    Indonesia also reported a dead 1-year-old girl in Jakarta had the virus.    Hong Kong found a dead peregrine falcon which tested positive for the H5N1 strain.
• 3/28/2006 - Nation records its second human death from bird flu by AP.
      Cairo, Egypt - A 30-year-old woman died of bird flu in Egypt.    Czech authorities said they suspected their first case of H5N1 in a dead swan.
• 4/2/2006 - Doctors told to watch for flesh-eating bacteria - Louisville surgeon seeing it more often - by Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal.
      Tim Bledsaw, 40, thought the dime-size spot on his inner thigh was just a boil - no cause for worry.    But within days, the spot grew so painful it became hard to walk, forcing him to go to the hospital.    Doctors discovered that he had necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria disease.    They struggled to save his leg, and his life.
      The disease is relatively rare, but is estimated that we have up to 1,500 cases a year nationally.    The germ that causes the illness is a resistant staph bacteria, a growing threat fueled by the overuse of antibiotics.
• 4/3/2006 - Nanoparticles and cancer by AP.
      Extremely small, custom designed nanoparticles show promise in improving cancer diagnosis and treatment, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina.    The nanoparticles may enable a more targeted and effective delivery of anticancer drugs than current treatments and reduce the side effects associated with chemotherapy.    They are designed at the molecular level to attack specific kinds of cancer without harming healthy cells.
• 4/4/2006 - Bird-flu deaths climb to 107, U.N. agency says by AP.
      Geneva - The U.N. health agency, WHO raised to 107 the confirmed number of people who have died from the bird flu.    The total number of confirmed cases is at 190.    Since 2003, 30 counties have been stricken in Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.
• 4/7/2006 - Deadly strain of bird flu confirmed in Britain by AP.
      London - Britain confirmed its first case of bird flu in a wild swan, setting the stage for concerns the disease could spread across the Atlantic.    The swan was found in the Scottish town of Cellardyke, more than 450 miles north of London.    The government began restricting the movement of poultry and set a risk area.    In Egypt, a 16-year old girl had died of the strain and an 8-year-old boy had tested positive.
• 4/10/2006 - California lab on front lines of bird-flu effort by Scott Lindlaw, AP.
      Richmond, Calif. - Concerns are now that with 11,000 people a day arriving from Asian countries to California and may bring the bird flu with them.    California has a $2.5 billion poultry industry, and millions of birds migrate along its flyways, and could intersect with Asian bird migrations and bring the disease to California this spring or summer.
• 4/17/2006 - Canada confirms 5^th case of mad cow disease by AP.
      Toronto - Canada confirmed a case of mad cow disease at a farm in British Columbia, the fifth since May of 2003.
• 4/22/2006 - Top cardinal calls condoms 'lesser evil' in AIDS fight by AP.
      Vatican City - Despite the Vatican's opposition to condoms, a senior cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a retired archbishop of Milan, said in comments published that condoms were the "lesser evil" when considering the scourge of AIDS.    He thinks we must do everything to fight AIDS.    There is no specific Vatican policy on using condoms to protect against AIDS, the Vatican opposes condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception.    Pope Benedict XVI repeated the Vatican's position last June, when he told African bishops abstinence was the only "fail-safe" way to prevent the spread of HIV.
• 4/27/2006 - Bird flu has spread to 45 countries, U.N. says by AP.
      United Nations - Bird flu has hit 45 countries, killed more than 100 people and seems to be spreading quickly, the U.N. said.    Dr. David Nabarro said the virus has led to the deaths of 200 million birds and has impoverished millions of poultry farmers.
• 4/29/2006 - Vietnam needs more than $400 million for bird flu by AP.
      Hanoi, Vietnam - Vietnam needs more than $400 million to fight bird flu and prepare for a potential pandemic in the next five years, and it expects about half to come from international donors.    The money would be used for improvements in human and animal health systems, and prevent smuggling of potentially infected birds and improve laboratory facilities.
• 5/2/2006 - Clinical trials will explore link between diabetes, Alzheimer's by AP.
      Washington - A new theory suggests a root cause of Alzheimer's disease is linked to diabetes - a theory about to be tested in thousands of Alzheimer's patients given the diabetes drug Avandia.    Alzheimer's already is expected to skyrocket as the population ages, rising from 4.5 million patients today to 14 million by 2050.    A preliminary experiment involving 511 patients found signs that Avandia might help in people who lack a gene called ApoE4 that spurs more aggressive Alzheimer's.    GlaxoSmithKline is poised to open three Phase III clinical trials this summer to test whether the drug, also called rosiglitazone, might protect certain patient's brains.    Diabetes damages blood vessels that supply the brain.
• 5/7/2006 - Bird flu reporting too slow to stamp out a pandemic by AP.
      Danang, Vietnam - Only half the world's human bird flu cases are being reported to the WHO within two weeks of being detected - a response time that must be improved to avert a pandemic.    You would only have two to three weeks to stamp out or slow a pandemic flu strain after it bagan spreading in humans.    The area would be quarantined and antiviral treatment would be administered.
• 5/14/2006 - Asian nations winning bird-flu battle - Proactive efforts prove successful - by Donald G. McNeil Jr., The New York Times.
      Even as it crops up in Europe and Africa, the bird flu has been largely snuffed out in parts of Southeast Asia.    In Thailand and Vietnam, both with the most human cases, have not had a single case in humans or outbreak in poultry this year.    China may be on the verge of succeeding at it too.    We can not claim victory yet, because the virus could still hitchhike back into these countries.    At least this is proof that aggressive measures can work, even in the poorest nations.
• 5/19/2006 - Cervical-cancer vaccine a 'wonderful step' - Advisory panel urges FDA to approve it - by AP.
      Washington - A vaccine with the potential to reduce worldwide deaths from cervical cancer by two-thirds, the No. 2 cancer killer in women, should be approved for sales in the U.S., a federal panel said.    A FDA advisory committee voted 13-0 to endorse Merck and Co.'s Gardasil as safe and effective.    It blocks viruses that cause cervical cancer.    Test in more than 17,000 girls and women have shown that the vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective in blocking cervical cancers caused by four strains of the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus in 70 percent of diagnosed cases.    Worldwide, 400,000 women are diagnosed with it each year and more than 200,000 die of it.    The virus, called HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in this country, with about 20 million people infected.    The vaccine is designed to be given to girls before they become sexually active, between 9 and 13.
• 5/25/2006 - Bird-flu case in Indonesia may be first person-to-person-to-person link by Sam Cage, AP.
      Geneva - A family of eight infected with bird flu in Indonesia likely passed the disease among themselves.    It is the fourth - and largest - family cluster of bird-flu cases likely transmitted from person to person since the start of the outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003, the WHO said.    Health workers in the area are being given Tamiflu as a precaution.    Bird flu has killed 124 people since 2003.
• 5/27/2006 - Bird flu suspected in two more deaths by AP.
      Medan, Indonesia - Two new fatal cases of bird flu was found in Indonesia, an 18-year-old and 10-year-old brother and sister from West Java.    They now have a total of 33 human deaths in Indonesia.
• 6/3/2006 - World leaders resist setting firm goals for funding fight against AIDS - Donor nations worried about bill - by Nick Wadhams, AP.
      United Nations - World leaders resisted setting exact financial targets for the fight against AIDS, because rich nations are too worried about having to pay the bill.    The U.N. report said 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS and 8,000 die every day from the virus, and this meeting was to prepare national plans to combat the virus over the next 10 years.    The fight against AIDS will require up to $23 billion each year by 2010, and the epidemic continues to outpace us.
• 6/12/2006 - Two U.S. mad-cow cases could be an unusual form by Libby Quaid, AP.
      Washington - Two cases of mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that some researchers suspect could appear spontaneously in cattle.    They are only now starting to identify this strain, which have been found in about a dozen cows in France, Italy and other European countries, as well as in Japan.    In the two U.S. cases, researchers did not detect the telltale spongy lesions caused by prions, the misfolded proteins that deposit plaque on the brain and kill brain cells.    The prions in the sample seemed to be distributed differently from what was to be expected to be found in cows with the classic form of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).    Mad cow disease is believed to spread through feed, when cows eat the contaminated tissue of other cattle.    That happens when crushed cattle remains are added to feed as a protein source.    The practice ended in the U.S. in 1997.
• 6/16/2006 - Test confirm girl, 7, died of bird flu by AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - International test have confirmed that a 7-year-old girl died from bird flu bringing Indonesia's death toll to at least 38.    Vietnam has had 42 deaths, and the total is now at 128.
• 6/20/2006 - U of L explains plans for biosafety lab on Shelby Campus by Bill Pike, The Courier-Journal.
      People are concerned about living next to the University of Louisville's Shelby Campus for the new $34.6 million biosafety lab, the Center for Predictive Medicine, which will begin construction in March and open in late 2008.    Researchers at the center will work on vaccines to fight bioterrorism and infectious diseases, such as influenza, Legionnaire's disease and antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis.
• 6/24/2006 - Mutation found in bird flu; no increased risk seen by Margie Mason, AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - The WHO has detailed the first evidence that the bird flu virus mutated and spread from person to person within a family, but experts said the genetic change does not increase the threat of a pandemic.    Only one in eight of the family members survived.    Experts still fear that the H5N1 virus could eventually mutate into a highly contagious form that spreads easily among people.
• 6/26/2006 - Test may aid research on Alzheimer's - Team monitors protein associated with disease - by Randolph E. Scmid, AP.
      Washington - A new test may help to point the way to earlier diagnosis or even treatment of Alzheimer's.    Brain deposits of a small protein known as amyloid beta long have been associated with the disease, but scientists were unable to determine whether the body produced too much of the protein or loses the ability to clear it away.    Washington University in St. Louis is poised to find the answer on six healthy volunteers.    It turned out that the protein, also known as Abeta, is produced faster than any other measured before, and the goal is to find clues to the developing disease before symptons begin to appear.
• 8/2/2006 - 50,000 dogs are killed in China's rabies fight by Christopher Bodeen, AP.
      Shanghai, China - China slaughtered 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered crackdown after three people died of rabies.    Health experts said the brutal policy pointed to deep weakness in the health-care infrastructure in China, where only 3 percent of dogs are vaccinated against rabies and more than 2,000 people die of the disease each year.    Dogs being walked were seized from their owners and beaten to death on the spot in Mouding county in Yunnan province.    Only miltary guard dogs and police canines were spared.    Owners were offered the equivalent of 63 cents per animal to kill their own dogs before the teams were sent in.    Dog meat is eaten throughout China, revered as a tonic in winter and a restorer of virility.
• 8/5/2006 - Chinese orders another mass dog slaughter by Christoher Bodeen, AP.
      Shanghai, China - Chinese authorities have ordered another mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies outbreak, drawing criticism from animal lovers, animal rights groups and activists.    Officials in the eastern city of Jining plan to kill all dogs within three miles of areas where rabies has been found.    This city has about 500,000 dogs.    Rabies is a disease that attacks the nervous system but which can be warded off with a series of injections.
• 8/6/2006 - Worries about pandemic put call centers on alert in prevention mode by AP.
      Confirmed human cases of bird flu (deaths): Vietnam 93 (42); Indonesia 54 (42); Thailand 22 (15); China 19 (12); Egypt 14 (6); Turkey 12 (4); Azerbaijan 8 (5); Cambodia 6 (6); Iraq 2 (2); and Djibouti 1 (0) as of July 26.
• 8/10/2006 - Humane Society offers rabies help by AP.
      Beijing - The Humane Society of the U.S. said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against rabies if it promises to stop their mass slaughter.
• 8/15/2006 - NAACP chief calls AIDS 'black disease'by Beth Duff-Brown, AP.
      Toronto - It is time for the African-American community "to face the fact that AIDS has become a blck disease" and find ways to defeat it, Julian Bond the chairman of the NAACP said at the international AIDS summit.    AIDS has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 black Americans since it began 25 years ago, and they account for more than half of all new cases of HIV.    Nearly 65 million people have been infected with the virus, and 25 million have died.    The U.S. has pledged $15 billion over five years to combat the disease in 15 countries
• 8/23/2006 - Study finds decline in herpes infections - Despite trend, virus still an 'epidemic' - by Carla K. Johnson, AP.
      Chicago - Nearly 25 years after an epidemic of genital herpes threatened to undo the sexual revolution, a new study finds a 19 percent decline in the percentage of people infected with the herpes virus since 1994.    Blood tests of more than 11,000 people found that 11 percent of men and 23 percent of woman carry the genital herpes, or type 2, virus.    Herpes increases the chances of infection with HIV.    Also 56 percent of men and 60 percent of women tested positive for the oral herpes virus, type 1, which is cold sores.
• 8/24/2006 - Mad cow disease confirmed in Canada by AP.
      Toronto - Canada confirmed mad cow disease in an animal on an Alberta farm, the latest case found in a dairy cow between eight and 10 years old.    The exposure likely occurred before or during the introduction of new feed regulations to stop the spread of the disease.
• 9/6/2006 - Cancer drug shows promise - Brown Cancer Center held trials - by Patrick Howington, The Courier-Journal.
      A cancer drug discovered by scientists now at the University of Louisville and developed by former Louisville company Aptamera has shown promise in human clinical trials.    The drug caused "major tumor shrinkage" in two of 12 kidney cancer patients, said British drug company Antisoma, which bought Aptamera last year in a stock deal valued at $21.4 million.
      The drug, called AS1411, also halted tumor growth in some other patients, said Dr. Donald Miller, director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at U of L, where the trial was recently completed.    The drug binds to a particular protein on the surface of cancer cells, causing them to stop growing and die.    The trial was designed, only to show that AS1411 is safe.    Still larger trials must be conducted to confirm the effectiveness and best dosages, and would not be approved for use in three to four years.
• 9/7/2006 - South African doctor says killer strain of TB may be widespread by Michelle Faul, AP.
      Tugela Ferry, South Africa - A deadly new strain of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis discovered in KwaZulu-Natal region of eastern South Africa is likely to have spread beyond the rural area where 52 of the 53 people diagnosed with it have died, the doctor Tony Moll, who discovered the super bug said.    This area does not have the facilities and support to even diagnose it and people could be dying in places that cannot find and diagnose patients.
      TB has been on the rise because AIDS has lowered so many South Africans' ability to fight it and other infections.    All 53 patients tested positive for HIV.    The government estimates more than 5.5 million of the 44 million South Africans are HIV-positive.    More than 900 people die of the disease each day in South Africa.    Such cases are also increasing in Botswana and Mozambique.
• 9/22/2006 - Alzheimer's goo injected into mice by AP.
      Scientists injected a sticky goo, a protein called beta-amyloid from Alzheimer's victims into the brains of mice and watched it take over, research that promises to help shed light on the earliest stages of the memory-robbing disease.    The study found a tiny clump of bad beta-amyloid triggers a buildup that results in Alzheimer's hallmark brain-crusting plaques - by physically pushing nearby proteins into rotten shapes.
• 9/26/2006 - E. coli infections reported in 25 states by AP.
      Washington - The outbreak of E. coli has now spread to half the states, infecting 166 people in 25 states (88 hospitalized), according to the CDC.    The infection has been associated with consumption of fresh spinach,
• 9/26/2006 - Drug-resistant TB increasing in U.S. - Foreign visitors bring in mutations - by Jordan Robertson, AP.
      San Francisco - The worst forms of the killer tuberculosis bug have been gaining ground in the U.S.    The number of U.S. cases, 74 since 1993, is small compared to developing nations, visitors from other countries are bringing in the deadliest mutations.    Visitors such as immigrant and refugee visa applicants are screened for these illnesses, everyone else is not.    Worldwide, TB kills 2 million people a year, mostly in Africa and southeast Asia.    The number of cases have jumped from about 273,000 in 2000 to 425,000 in 2004.    In the U.S., 128 people were diagnosed with it in 2004, a 13 percent increase from the previous year.
• 10/26/2006 - Shingles vaccine advised for older adults by AP.
      Atlanta - A government advisory panel recommended that Americans 60 and older get vaccinated against shingles, an excrutiating rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox.    Shingles is a blistering skin rash that is most common in older people.    It usually goes away after four weeks, but one in five sufferers develops severe long-term nerve pain.    Complications also can include scarring and loss of vision or hearing.    In May, the FDA licensed a souped-up version of a chickenpox vaccine, Zostavax, made by Merck & Co.    An estimated 15 to 30 percent of people infected with the chickenpox virus develop shingles later in life.    The virus hibernates for decades in nerve cells around the spine, and reactivates in some patients, due to the immune system weakening with age.    They claim the new vaccine holds it in check.    A single-dose of the vaccine cost about $150, and insurers are considering whether to cover it.
• 10/31/2006 - Salmonella outbreak sickens 172 by AP.
      Atlanta - A salmonella outbreak possibly linked to produce has sickened at least 172 people in 18 states, including Kentucky and Indiana, officials said.
• 10/31/2006 - New bird flu sidesteps vaccines by AP.
      Washington - Scientists have discovered a new strain of bird flu that appears to sidestep current vaccines.    It's infecting people as well as poultry in Asia, and some researchers fear its evolution may have been steered by the vaccination programs designed to protect poultry from earlier types of the H5N1 flu.    The new variant has become the primary version of the bird flu in several provinces of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.
• 11/8/2006 - U of L touts cancer breakthrough - Researchers' vaccine stops disease in mice - by Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal.
      Two University of Louisville researchers have developed a vaccine that prevents lung cancer in mice, a treatment they say could lead to a vaccine for humans against lung and other forms of cancer.    John W. Eaton, one of the researchers, presented the findings today at an international cancer conference in Prague, Czech Republic.    Eaton, 65, deputy director of U of L's James Graham Brown Cancer Center, said the results in mice are promising, but by the time it is tried in humans he will probably be dead, because of government rules on testing new drugs.    His colleague Robert Mitchell, said they injected adult mice with mouse embryonic stem cells: basic cells isolated from a fertilized mouse embryo.    The immune system of the adult mouse recognizes the stem cells as foreign and develops an immune response, and fights if off like it would a tumor.    By doing so, it appears that the mouse develops an immunity to cancer tumors.    Without a vaccine, the body's immune system is less effective against actual tumors.    That's because they grow very fast and are adept at concealing themselves from the immune system.    The idea is to crank up the immune system.    The vaccine was about 80 to 100 percent effective in preventing tumors in mice with the implanted cancer cells.
• 11/10/2006 - U of L cancer researcher sees 'miracles' - Treatment tackles advanced melanoma - by Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal.
      Advanced melanoma - a deadly form of skin cancer - is almost always a death sentence for patients.    Researchers at the University of Louisville report dramatic progress with an experimental treatment that already is prolonging life for seven cancer patients.    They are all alive after 12 months, which normally would be eight months.    They are expanding this to 50 melonoma patients to prompt the body to fight the disease with a drug that boosts its immune response and helps it identify and attack the cancer.    Teaching the immune system to attack cancer is better than toxic treatments of chemotherapy or radiation.    About 8,000 people are expected to die from melanoma this year, and is the number one cancer killer in women ages 25 to 30.    The experimental drug is a combination of a toxin and a drug that frees the immune system, where the drug defeats the defenses of the tumor, attaches itself to the cancer cell and injects the toxin into the cell, killing it.
• 11/11/2006 - ALS may be linked to military service by AP.
      Washington - Military service, particularly in the Gulf War, may be linked to development of Lou Gehrig's disease, the Institute of Medicine said.    The degenerative nerve disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, gradually destroys the ability to control movement.    Most victims die of respiratory failure within a few years.
      Studies done indicated a higher rate of ALS among veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War, one found a link to veterans who served prior to that and one found no link.    ALS affects between 20,000 and 30,000 Americans.
• 11/11/2006 - Study: HIV patients could live 24 years - Care in that time may cost $600,000 - by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over that time is more than $600,000.    The average annual cost of care is about $25,200, which is 40 percent higher than estimated in the late 1990s, when life expectancy was about 10 years.    About two dozen HIV-fighting antiretroviral drugs have come onto the market that have chnaged that life expectancy.
• 11/14/2006 - Tamiflu to carry new warning - FDA urges watching for abnormal behavior - by Andrew Bridges, AP.
      Washington - Patients who take Tamiflu should be closely monitored for abnormal behavior.    The new precaution comes after reports of more than 100 new cases of delirium, hallucinations and other unusual psychiatric behavior in children treated with the drug.    Most of these new cases are from Japan, where Tamiflu usage is the highest in the world.    Between 2001 and 2005, Tamiflu was prescribed 24.5 million times in Japan, compared with just 6.5 million in the U.S., according to the FDA.    Tamiflu is made by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG, and is suppose to reduce symptoms and duration of the flu but is not a cure, and has an important role in an outbreak of bird flu.
• 11/22/2006 - Infection rates, deaths from AIDS increasing by AP.
      Geneva - An estimated 39.5 million people are now living with the AIDS virus worldwide as infection rates and deaths from it continues to mount, the U.N. said.    About 2.9 million people have died this year from AIDS-related illnesses, and 4.3 million more were infected with HIV.    The disease's spread was most notable in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.    It is even resurging with new infections in countries that had made progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, such as Uganda, Thailand, Western European nations and the U.S.
• 11/23/2006 - China's cases of HIV/AIDS jump 30 percent in 2006 by AP.
      Beijing - Two months before the end of 2006, China's reported number of HIV/AIDS cases already is nearly 30 percent higher than all of last year, with intravenous drug use the biggest source of infection.
• 11/26/2006 - Test to confirm Avian flu dangerously slow, studies find by Donald G. McNeil Jr., The New York Times.
      Waiting for laboratory confirmation of an Avian flu outbreak using standard tests would cause dangerous treatment delays because test are difficult and time-consuming.    Studies were done on two outbreaks in family clusters of flu cases in Turkey and Indonesia.    Rapid tests have failed every time, the only test that consistently worked were polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCRs, which can only be performed in advanced laboratories and take several hours.    Around 290 people were tested because of flu symtoms or contact with dying birds or both.    All were given the antiviral drug oseltamivir, which is also sold as Tamiflu, and about half were hospitalized.    Only 10 came up positive on PCR tests; eight confirmed by a WHO laboratory.    All were children; four died.
• 11/28/2006 - U.S. influx of exotic animals a health concern - Most arrive with no disease screening - by Margaret Ebrahim and John Solomon, AP.
      Washington - Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming into the U.S. by the millions with little or no screening for disease, leaving Americans vunerable to a virulent outbreak.    Demand for such widlife is booming as parents try to get their kids the latest pets fancied by Hollywood stars and zoos and research scientists seek to fill their cages.    More than 650 million critters from kangaroos and kinkajous to iquanas and tropical fish were imported legally into the U.S. in the past three years, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.    There are only 120 full-time inspectors, who are not trained to detect diseases.    Zoonotic diseases, those that jump to humans, account for three-quarters of all emerging infectious threats, the CDC says.    Five of the six diseases the agency regards as top threats to national security are zoonotic.    There have been an estimated 50 million people worldwide that have been infected with zoonotic diseases since 2000 and as many as 78,000 have died.    Hantavirus, which is carried by rodents and can cause acute respiratory problems or deaths, has sickened at least 317 Americans and killed at least 93 since 1996.    More than 600 since 2000 were sickened with tularemia, a disease from rabbits, hamsters and other rodents, 3 have died.    More than 210,000 Americans between 2000 and 2004 were sickened with salmonella, at least 89 died.
• 11/28/2006 - Study: AIDS will be among top 3 killers by Maria Cheng, AP.
      London - Within the next 25 years, AIDS is set to join heart disease and stroke as the top three causes of death worldwide, according to a study.    AIDS was predicted to decline, but instead it is on the rise.    AIDS accounts for 2.8 million deaths every year but could be responsible for nearly 120 million by 2030.    If new life-prolonging antiretrovirals are developed it is still estimated that 89 million people will die from the disease.
• 11/30/2006 - Study: A break from HIV drugs doubles risk by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      A study of HIV treatment has found that patients who temporarily stop taking their powerful medicines more than double their risk of dying.   
• 12/5/2006 - E.coli outbreak in N.J. linked to 3 Taco Bells by Beth DeFalco, AP.
      South Palinfield, N.J. - An E.coli outbreak that has sickened at least 22 people was linked by health investigators to three Taco Bells in New Jersey.    Only two were in the hospital in critical condition with hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can permantently damage the kidneys.    Twenty of those infected did not get sick, ate at a Taco Bell in South Plainfied, Franklin Township and Edison.    In Long Island at least 14 people were sickened, where 10 ate at a Taco Bell.    They are still investigating on what on the menu contained the E.coli, or Escherichia coli.
• 12/8/2006 - Malaria helping AIDS spread by AP.
      Washington - Malaria is fueling the spread of AIDS in Africa by boosting the HIV in people's bodies for weeks at a time.    People weakened by HIV are, in turn, more vulnerable to malaria.    This could be blamed for thousands of HIV infections and almost 1 million bouts of malaria over two decades in just one part of Kenya.    With Africa being home to 24.7 million HIV-infected people, about 2 million died this year, this is a serious situation.
• 12/8/2006 - Calif.-grown scallions eyed in Taco Bell inquiry by AP.
      The scallions suspected in the E. coli outbreak linked to Taco Bell came from a Southern California grower.    A later news article dimissed the scallions and later found that the E. coli may have come from lettuce instead.
• 12/15/2006 - Breast-cancer rate declines significantly by AP.
      The rate of breast cancer dropped a startling 7 percent from August 2002 to December 2003, researchers said.    The reason, they believe, may be because during that time, millions of women abandoned hormone treatment for the symtoms of menopause after a large national study concluded that the hoormones slightly increased breast-cancer risk.
• 12/20/2006 - FDA proposes tougher warnings on pain relievers by AP.
      Washington - Federal health officials cautioned the tens of millions of Americans who take popular over-the-counter pain pills of their potentially serious side effects and announced label changes intended to warn of the sometimes deadly risks.    Aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen and other related over-the-counter drugs remain safe and effective when used as directed, the FDA said.    Overdoses of acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage, even death, the FDA said.    For the other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, there is a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney injury even when patients take the correct dose.
• 12/27/2006 Heartburn drugs, hip fractures linked by AP.
      Chicago - Taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over age 50, a large study of more than 145,000 patients average age of 77 in Britain found.    The study raises questions about safety of some of the most widely used and heavily promoted prescription drugs on the market, taken by millions of people.    When the drugs reduce acid in the stomach, they also make it more difficult for the body to absorb calcium.    That can lead to weaker bones and fractures.    Some people can find relief from heartburn with antacids such as Tums, Rolaids and Maalox, but others with chronic heartburn can develop painful ulcers in the esophagus.    The concerned class of drugs are known as proton pump inhibitors.    There is a smaller risk class of drugs called H2 blockers such as Tagamet and Pepcid.    Patients who used proton pump inhibitors for more than a year had a 44 percent higher risk of hip fracture than nonusers.    The longer the use the higher the risk.
• 12/31/2006 Malaria outbreak is first in 40 years by AP.
      Kingston, Jamaica - Nearly 160 people have been diagnosed with malaria in Jamaica's first outbreak of the disease in four decades, health officials said.    No deaths have been reported since the outbreak was confirmed Nov. 30.    Most cases have been detected in densely populated slums of west Kingdom.    Malaria kills about 1 million children a year in poor countries with warm, damp climates.
  
  The year 2007.
  
  
• 1/5/2007 Bill would make girls get vaccine by The Courier-Journal.
      Middle-school girls would have to be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer under a bill introduced this week in the Kentucky legislation.    Critics contend the law would take away parent's rights and possibly give girls implicit permission to have sex.    This is the first vaccine, named Gardasil, against cancer that targets four strains of the sexually transmitted human papillom-virus, also known as HPV.    Two of the strains cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
• 1/10/2007 'Stomach flu' strikes across the nation by USA Today.
      Stomach viruses tearing through communities from California to the Carolinas wrecked the December holidays.    The culprits are noroviruses, the most common cause of contagious gastroenteritis, better known as "stomach flu."    Helath officials say that cases are two to three times higher than the usual numbers, for what is normally a cruise-ship outbreak.    It can cause you to vomit 20 times a day, spreads through contaminated food or water
• 1/26/2007 Study finds damage to small area of brain can snuff out the urge to smoke by AP.
      Washington - Damage to a small spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a suprising discovery thay may shed important light on addiction.    A stroke victim who survived simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction.    A doctor scanned the brains of 69 smokers and ex-smokers to pinpoint the region involved, called the insula.    This area of the brain is where it turns physical reactions into feelings, such as feeling anxious when your heart speeds up.    When a substance is introduced the insula may act like a headquarters for cravings.    They may be able in the future to develop drugs to target the insula to help smokers quit.
• 1/31/2007 Merck pushes to require cervical-cancer vaccine by AP.
      Merck & Co. is helping bankroll efforts to pass state laws requiring girls as young as 11 or 12 to receive Gardasil, its new vaccine against HPV.    At least 18 states are debating whether to require Gardasil which gained federal approval in June.
• 2/1/2007 University student dies of bird flu by AP.
      Lagos, Nigeria - Bird flu has claimed its first human victim in Africa's most populous nation, killing a female university student in Lagos where chickens and other fowl are raised in close quarters with humans.
• 2/2/2007 Centers for Disease Control release guide for fighting flu pandemic by The Washington Post.
      Atlanta - To fight pandemic influenza before a vaccine becomes available states should be prepared to keep children out of school for three months, businesses should be prepared to operate with skeleton work forces, and parents may lose income from skipping work, according to the CDC.
• 2/3/2007 Nations face dilemma amid threat of bird flu by AP.
      Hanoi, Vietnam - After three years of fighting bird flu, some poor Asian nations must face a health dilemma whether to spend millions of dollars to replace expiring drug stockpiles of Tamiflu for a pandemic that may never come.    The price $9 for the poorest nations to $19 for the richest.    The U.S. holds enough for 22 million.
• 2/3/2007 Texas governor orders anti-cancer vaccine for girls by AP.
      Austin, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature, Gov. Rick Perry who has ties with Merck issued an order making Texas the first to require that school girls entering the sixth grade be vaccinated against HPV, beginning September 2008.
• 2/9/2007 Study finds that fertility treatments raise risk of birth defects by AP.
      San Francisco - Babies conceived through fertility treatments have higher rates of birth defects, even though the risk is small.    A study of more than 61,000 births in Canada puts the risk at less than 3 percent of all births, which is startling high.    The risk is higher in cases of multiple births.    More than 1 million babies worldwide have been born through assisted reproductive technology, or ART, which includes induced ovulation, artificial insemination, IVF or invitro (lab dish) fertilization, or injecting a single sperm into an egg to create an embryo.
• 2/22/2007 U.S. orders warnings on ADHD drug labels by AP.
      Washington - Drugs prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will include guides to alert patients and parents of the risks of mental and heart problems, including sudden death.    The FDA issued a directive for manufacturers of Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera, in all 15 drugs, to develop the guides and revise their labels.    Problems such as hearing voices, unfounded suspicions and manic behavior may occur in patients taking the drugs.    Also the injected asthma medication made by Genentech Inc., known as Xolair or omalizumab is causing a reaction called anaphylaxis, which could be life threatening.
• 2/22/2007 Cholera suspected in more than 680 deaths by AP.
      Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - More than 680 people have died in a suspected cholera outbreak in Ethiopia that has also affected neighboring countries.    About 60,000 people have been infected, but no emergency has been declared despite a U.N. warning that the disease is an epidemic.
• 2/22/2007 More outbreaks of bird flu predicted by AP.
      Moscow - New outbreaks of bird flu are likely in Moscow and surrounding provinces, officials warned in the southern region of Russia.    Dead domestic birds in the Moscow suburbs on Feb. 9, has been traced to an animal market just outside the capital.
• 3/3/2007 Health officials advocates bird-flu vaccine stockpile by AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - Building a stockpile of bird flu vaccine would help ensure poor countries do not lose out if a flu virus starts killing people worldwide, the WHO said.    Up to 500 million doses of the vaccine can now be produced, and available to countries if an outbreak occurs.
• 3/16/2007 Cervical-cancer virus remains a mystery to many by AP.
      HPV is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease which is so common that most people will have some form of it in their lifetime, especially in young adults, and many know little about its dangers.    The virus can cause genital warts, in both men and women, but women risk more problems including cervical cancer and infertility.    Men are the silent carriers who unknowingly spread the virus and condoms may not prevent transmission.    Even after contracting the disease the vaccine can still be used just to prevent the worst four types, which can still be infected by.
• 3/23/2007 TB rate levels off; versions resistant to drugs pose threat by AP.
      London - The global rate of tuberculosis infections has leveled off, health officials said.    But an ominous threat is emerging from drug resistant versions of TB.    The AIDS virus makes people more susceptible to TB, which may propel TB across Africa.    In 2005, there were 8.8 million new TB cases and 1.6 million deaths, the new threat known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB and has only been reported in South Africa, but could spread to other countries.
• 3/29/2007 Circumcised men have less risk of HIV, experts say by The Washington Post.
      Johannesburg, South Africa - The WHO urged that nations with rampant AIDS epidemics begin offering free circumcisions in hopes of preventing millions of new infections and deaths, because of evidence that removing a man's foreskin lowers his risk of contracting HIV by 60 percent.
• 4/18/2007 FDA approves bird-flu vaccine by AP.
      A bird-flu vaccine won federal approval as a stopgap measure against a potential pandemic until more effective vaccines can be developed.    It is called the Sanofi Aventis SA vaccine already being stockpiled for use in an outbreak, which is not commercially available, but the government is buying and stockpiling 20 million doses as something is better than nothing.
• 5/29/2007 New therapy for bird flu studied by AP.
      Washington - Blood donations donated by four Vietnamese adult survivors of bird flu seems to harbor a potent protection against the deadly disease.    Scientists are culling immune-systme molecules from survivors to provide a new therapy for the disease, and it has been tested on mice.
• 5/11/2007 Public was misled on OxyContin addiction by AP.
      Roanoke, Va. - The maker, Purdue Pharma L.P. of the powerful painkiller OxyCintin (oxycodone) and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty to misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction.    They will pay $634.5 million in fines to 26 states to settle complaints of physicians who were encouraged to overprescribe the drug.
• 5/26/2007 Research puts sarin at root of Gulf War syndrome by Army Times.
      Researchers say they have all but determined that sarin gas is the cause of the mysterious Gulf War syndrome for 300,000 troops exposed to it in 1991.    They found that 13 soldiers exposed to small amounts of sarin in the 1991 Gulf War had 5 percent less white brain matter -- connective tissue -- than soldiers who had not been exposed.    Also found that 140 soldiers who were exposed had fine motor skills of someone 20 years older.
      Roberta White, of the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health, conducted the study using Pentagon data to triangulate the location of troops in the path of a huge sarin plume unleashed when U.S. forces destroyed an Iraqi chemical weapons dump in Khamisiyah in March 1991.
      Of the 700,000 service members who served in Desert Storm, 100,000 have reported mysterious symptoms usually diagnosed as stress for 16 years.    The Pentagon denied blowing up the dump in 1997, which may have exposed as many as 300,000 who breathed in small doses of the fumes.
• 6/3/2007 Veterans' ills may show MS link to Gulf War by Courier-Journal.
      More than 5,000 Gulf War veterans who have developed chronic neurological disease, suggesting a possible connection to toxic substances or other environmental triggers during wartime are being studied in research at Georgetown University, for a connection to MS (multiple sclerosis).    MS among Kuwaitis more than doubled between 1993 and 2000, and there are no firm statistics on the number of veterans with MS.    At least 600 have been diagnosed nationwide.    MS occurs when a fatty tissue that helps nerve fibers conduct electrical impulses, called Myelin, is lost.    They treat it with shots of interferon beta-1 three times a week.    Suspected causes are oil-well smoke, vaccines and sarin from the destruction of weapons.
• 6/10/2007 Study predicts big rise in Alzheimer's by AP.
      Washington - More than 26 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, and a new forecast says the number will quadruple by 2050.    At that rate one in 85 people will have the brain-destroying disease in 40 years according to researchers at John Hopkins University.    At present Asia has 12.6 million cases, which will be 62.8 million by 2050 of the projected 106 million cases.    In 2050 the U.S. would have 16 million, Africa 6.3 million, Europe 16.5 million, and Latin America 10.8 million.
• 6/11/2007 Court hears debate on vaccine-autism link by The Washington Post.
      For more than a decade, 5,000 families have been warring with the medical establishment over their claims that routine childhood vaccines are responsible for the nation's apparent epidemic of autism.    No research yet has found a link, but argument is it was triggered by mercury-based perservatives in vaccines which is toxic to children's brains.    U.S. officials began phasing out the additive, thimerosal, in children's vaccine around 1999.    A special "vaccine court" in Washington is about to decide if parents have the decision about whether to vaccinate their children.
• 7/24/2007 Efforts stepped up to stop botulism outbreak by AP.
      Washington - People should immediately throw away more than 90 products, from chili sauce to corned beef hash to dog food, produced by Castleberry's Food Co. a plant in Augusta, Ga. linked to a botulism outbreak, the government warned.    This is about tens of millions of cans that went out to 8,500 retailers.    Four cases of botulism have been reported in Indiana and Texas, a toxin which can paralyze the arms, legs and breathing muscles, with symptoms of blurred vision and slurred speech within 18 to 36 hours of ingestion.
• 8/16/2007 China's swine virus spawns fears of pandemic by AP.
      Chengdu, China - A highly infectious swine virus is sweeping through China's pig population, spawning fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs.    So far, the mysterious virus - believed to be an unusually deadly form of an infection known as blue ear pig disease - has spread to 25 of that countriy's 33 provinces and regions, prompting a pork shortage and the strongest inflation in China in a decade.    China is downplaying it just as they did with SARS and insist the disease is under control and vaccine has been distributed.
• 8/23/2007 Virus may play role in obesity, researchers find by AP.
      Washington - Researchers believe that obesity is caused by a virus, when they used a human stem cell created from liposuction tissue was exposed to a common virus, they turned into fat cells and stored fat.    The virus is called adenovirus-36, from a family of viruses that cause colds and pinkeye.    They have found that a higher percentage of fat people were infected with the virus than nonfat people.    Animals exposed to the virus got more obese.    If a viral cause of obesity can be confirmed, a vaccine could be developed within 5 to 10 years to prevent the virus from making some people fat.
• 8/24/2007 Humans at root of new ills, U.N. says by AP.
      Geneva - The ballooning world population, intensive farming practices and changes in sexual behavior have provided a breeding ground for an unprecedented number of emerging diseases, the WHO said.    HIV/AIDS and 38 other new pathogens unknown a generation ago are now afflicting mankind.
• 8/25/2007 Rate of U.S. mothers dying in childbirth rising by AP.
      Atlanta - U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show.    Experts believe increasing maternal obesity and a jump in Caesarean sections are partly to blame.
• 8/30/2007 Two Indiana men contact West Nile virus by AP.
  
• 8/30/2007 More than 100 people die; fever outbreak suspected. by AP.
      Kinshasa, Congo - More than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo, including all who attended the funerals of two village chiefs, in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.    Congo has had large outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola, and in this case four villages are affected and 217 people became ill, including 103 who died.
      I put this article under the pollution section: dated 11/10/2007 Official accused of putting radioactive waste in river by AP.    Kinshasa, Congo - A government official in Congo suspected of ordering as much as 17 tons of radioactive waste in the Likasi River in the southeast of the country has been arrested.
      Is there any chance that this caused the illnesses above?
• 9/2/2007 New smallpox vaccine can be made quickly by AP.
      Washington - The approval of a new vaccine ACAM2000 against smallpox was announced by the FDA which could be made quickly if the 1980 virtually extinct virus reappears, as if in a bioterrorist attack.    The CDC has already stockpiled 192.5 million doses.
• 9/13/2007 New foot-and-mouth outbreak found by AP.
      Egham, England - Authorities confirmed a new foot-and-mouth outbreak near London just days after lifting livestock restrictions.
• 9/13/2007 Western gorilla is in great peril by AP.
      Geneva - The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction, the cause the Ebola virus.
• 9/19/2007 Medical teams try to halt Ebola outbreak by AP.
      Johannesburg, South Africa - Medical personnel and supplies are being airlifted to a remote region of central Congo to combat what threatens to become the world's most serious outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in years.    Only nine cases have been confirmed, and may have already killed 168 people and sickened 375 others.
• 9/19/2007 Officials reluctant to discuss bird flu outbreak by AP.
      Beijing - China scrambled to respond to an outbreak of bird flu among ducks in the southern city of Guangzhou, and is the first appearance of it since May.    China said it has been brought under control with 36,130 ducks had been culled.
• 9/20/2007 Meteorite confirmed; illnesses under study by AP.
      Lima, Peru - A fiery meteorite crashed into southern Peru, but experts were still puzzling over claims that its fumes sickened 200 people.    Water in the meteorites muddy crater boiled for maybe 10 minutes from the heat and could have given off a vapor that sickened people, but no evidence was found to confirm that.
• 9/22/2007 AIDS vaccine fails; Merck halts testing by AP.
      Trenton, N.J. - A promising experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work in a large test, leading developer Merck & Co. to halt the study.
• 10/1/2007 Germs return from space more virulent by AP.
      Washington - It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back deadlier than ever.
      Except it really happened.
      The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning.
      The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006.
      The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs.
      The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died more quickly than others fed identical germs that had remained on Earth.
      The researchers found 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that had went to space.    "These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment.    The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," said Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.
• 10/3/2007 Congo's Ebola outbreak may be contained by AP.
      Kinshasa, Congo - With only two patients left in an isolation ward, doctors hope an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Congo may soon be contained.
• 10/17/2007 Microbe killing more in U.S. than AIDS - Bacterium highly resistant to drugs by The Washington Post.
      Washington - A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than health officials had thought and is killing more people in the U.S. each year than the AIDS virus.
      The microbe, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MSRA, a strain of a once-innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the CDC calculated.
      In Lexington, Ky., they are trying to determine whether nine high school students and a jail inmate have contracted a strain of MRSA, associated with horrible skin infections but also causes blood infections, pneumonia and other illness.    The disease can make germ-fighting cells to explode.
• 11/13/2007 220 on cruise ship become ill by AP.
      Honolulu - A highly contagious norovirus that causes stomach flu (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) sickened about 220 passengers aboard a Norwegian Cruise lines ship that returned to Honolulu after its weekly seven-day cruise around the islands.    It only infected about 9 percent of the ship's 2,500 passengers.
• 11/14/2007 U.S. chlamydia cases at record high - CDC reports rates of 3 STDs are rising by AP.
      Atlanta - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the U.S. last year, the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease.    Left untreated the infection can cause infertility and can be treated if caught early.
      The CDC also said the gonorrhea rate is jumping again after hitting a record low, caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics.
      Syphilis is rising too for the first time in 15 years.
• 12/1/2007 Bush urges Congress: Boost foreign AIDS relief by AP.
      Mount Airy, Md. - President Bush urged Congress to approve an additional $30 billion for the global fight against AIDS over the next five years, and announced he would visit Africa early next year.    The number of people in sub-Saharan Africa receiving treatment for AIDS has gone from 50,000 five years ago to nearly 1.4 million now.    He stated doubling funding would provide treatment for 2.5 million people.
• 12/1/2007 FDA loss of expertise damaging, report says by AP.
      Washington - A loss of scientific expertise at the FDA is threatening American lives.    Food safety in particular is in crisis, with heart-damaging drug side effects, deadly E. coli in spinach, pets dead from chemically spiked food, toxic toothpaste, thus puts the agency ability in question.    Congress has enacted 125 statues giving the FDA new or expanded responsibilites since 1988, without enough funding to cover the extra work, and the same workforce it had 15 years ago.    Its budget has lost the equivalent of $300 million to inflation, and has been unable to recruit and retain leading edge scientists in key areas.
• 12/4/2007 Advocates challenge AIDS statistics by AP.
      Atlanta - Advocacy groups say new government estimates will show at least 35 percent more Americans are infected with the AIDS virus each year than the government has said.    The estimate is around 40,000 new HIV cases in the nation each year, but the advocates claim it is 55,000 or higher.
• 12/8/2007 New strain of ebola kills 22 in Uganda by AP.
      Kampala, Uganda - The patients in Uganda were suffering from a new strain of Ebola, that has killed 22 people, including a doctor and four health workers before they knew what it was.    Ebola can cause massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment and here it has 101 cases with 22 deaths already.
• 12/16/2007 Officials report 6 cases of bird flu in Pakistan by AP.
      Six people caught the deadly strain of bird flu in northern Pakistan last month and one has died since.    The WHO is trying to confirm it as positive for the H5N1 strain, and if so it would be the first in humans in South Asia
• 12/21/2007 Syphilis multiplying among Europeans by AP.
      London - Syphillis is making an alarming resurgence in Europe, probably increasing by 10 percent because of risky sex among gay men.    Outbreaks have occurred in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.
  
  The year 2008.
  
  
• 1/11/2008 Study identifies 273 human proteins that HIV attacks by AP.
      Washington - The AIDS virus has to hijack human proteins to do its damage, but scientists until now have only known only a few dozen of its targets.    Harvard researchers unveiled a longer list, an important step in the hunt for new drugs.    HIV is a simple virus consisting of just nine genes, but makes up for that in a sinister and complex way by literally taking over the cellular machinery of its victims so it can multiply and then destroy.    The proteins it exploits have been dubbed HIV dependency factors, and 36 had been discovered, until the new research has found 273 of these potential HIV targets.
      The researchers used a technique called RNA interference that can disrupt a gene's ability to do its job and make a protein.    One by one, they disrupted thousands of human genes in test tubes, dropped in some HIV, and watched what happened.    If HIV couldn't grow well, it signaled the protein that the gene that had failed to produce must be the reason.    They will be spending more research to figure out the role each of these proteins plays in HIV's life cycle.
      Last August the government approved sale of the first drug that works by blocking an HIV dependency factor, a cellular doorway called CCR5.    The hope is that the longer list may point to similar drugs therapies.
• 1/14/2008 Researchers grow, restart rat heart in laboratory by Randolph E. Schmid, AP.
      Washington - Researchers from the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota seeking new treatments for heart disease managed to grow a rat heart in the lab and start it beating.    Not science fiction anymore the door is open to build these tissues in the future.    Scientists have worked for years for ways to grow body parts, especially on heart valves as an alternative to plastic or animal valves.    They took the hearts from eight newborn rats and removed all the cells.    Left behind was a gelatin-like matrix shaped like a heart and containing conduits where the blood vessels had been.    Scientist then injected cells back into this scaffold -- muscle cells and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels.    The muscle cells covered the matrix walls and lined up together, while the endothelial cells found their way inside to coat the blood vessels.    Then the hearts were stimulated electrically, by the eighth day there were contractions seen by the naked eye.
      They hope to see the process work with either human hearts from cadavers or pig hearts, stripped of their cells and replaced from the person needing a heart transplant to avoid rejection.    The pig heart test is next.
• 1/30/2008 Bird flu causes slaughter of chickens by AP.
      Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said it had killed some 158,000 chickens after the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain was found at an infected farm in the Kharaj province.    No human infections were found and all together more than 4.5 million fowl have been killed in provinces around the capital, and has been a $10 billion blow to their poultry industry.
• 2/1/2008 Epilepsy drug may boost suicide risk by AP.
      Washington - Epilepsy drugs used by millions of people may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior, the FDA warned in an alert to doctors.    The FDA analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 anti-seizure drugs, some have been on the market for decades.
• 2/2/2008 Cervical cancer virus also affects men by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - The sexually transmitted HPV virus that causes cervical cancer in women is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men.    The vaccine Gardasil for it was only given to girls and young women, and Merck plans to get government permission to offer the shot to boys.
• 2/16/2008 Obesity on track to become top cancer killer, scientist says by Randolph Schmid, AP.
      Boston - Obesity is on its way to being deadlier than smoking as a cause of cancer, researchers said.    Being obese is currently associated with about 14 percent of cancer deaths in men and 20 percent in women, compared with about 30 percent each for smoking.    Obesity is increasing in a variety of cancers, including breast, colorectal, liver, pancreas and gallbladder.
• 2/17/2008 Bird flu killed 2 boys, health ministry reports by AP.
      Jakarta, Indonesia - A 3-year-old boy has died of bird flu, a health official said, announcing the 16 year old second death from the illness in one day.    The two cases bring Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
• 2/18/2008 USDA orders largest beef recall ever by Greg Risling, AP.
      Los Angeles - The USDA ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. -- the subject of an animal-abuse investigation -- that provided meat to school lunch programs.
• 2/20/2008 Ky. House sidelines controversial bill on vaccinating girls by Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal.
      The Kentucky House delayed action on a controversial bill that would require girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cervical cancers.    They want to allow parents to opt in or out by signing a form to accept or decline, instead of just a refusal-to-vaccinate statement.    The vaccine, Merck and Co.'s Gardasil, costs $360 for the series of three shots, and the state would have to pay $1.5 million to cover low-income uninsured children.    Cervical cancer strikes 9,700 American women and kills 3,700 each year.
      On February 21 the House passed the bill requiring vaccinations, which then would go to the Senate.
• 2/21/2008 2 studies renew doubts on heart drug by AP.
      Atlanta - Heart-surgery patients were more likely to die if given the anti-bleeding drug Trasylol, two studies claim the drug is dangerous.    Bayer AG stopped selling the drug, known generically as aprotinin, which had been on the market for 14 years and taken by hundreds of thousands of heart-bypass patients each year.
• 2/27/2008 Drug-resistant TB is spreading quickly by AP.
      London - Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading faster than medical experts had feared, the WHO warned.    There data was from only about half the world's countries.    There are concerns obout a lethal collison between TB and AIDS, and the spread of XDR-TB, or extensively drug-resistant TB, which has been found in 45 countries.
• 2/27/2008 Mad cow disease found; it's 2nd case in 2 months by AP.
      Ottawa - Canadian officials confirmed a new case of mad cow disease, the second in two months and the 12^th since the disease was discovered in Canada in 2003.
• 3/6/2008 40,000 are warned of hepatitis C by Kathleen Hennessey, AP.
      Las Vegas - Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a visit to the doctor may have made them sick.    A Las Vegas clinic was found to have been reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years.    That may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitus C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too.    During testing 6 acute cases of hepatitus C have been confirmed.
• 3/12/2008 Study: 1 in 4 teen girls has an STD by Lindsey Tanner, AP.
      Chicago - At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease according to a federal study.    Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having had sex, not incluidng oral sex.    Among those who admitted having had sex, the STD rate was even more disturbing -- 40 percent.    The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, according to the CDC and represented girls age 14 to 19.    The teens were tested for four infections: HPV (18%); chlamydia (4%); trichomoniasis (2.5%); and genital herpes (2%).    They were not tested for gonorrhea or syphilis.
• 3/20/2008 Heparin contaminant is identified by FDA by AP.
      Washington - U.S. health officials have identified a contaminant in batches of the blood thinner heparin associated with 19 deaths and trying to determine how the chemical got into the drug.    The lots of heparin, whose key ingredient was imported from China, were recalled Feb. 28, and FDA officials said that no new deaths have been reported since then.    The contaminant is oversulfated condroitin sulfate, a chemical that does not occur naturally.
• 3/21/2008 Dengue epidemic hits Rio de Janeiro by Michael Astor, AP.
      Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - An outbreak of dengue has killed at least 47 people - and perhaps twice that number - in Rio de Janeiro state this year, officials said, announcing a hot spot that sickened nearly 1 million people last year in the Western Hemisphere.    State officials said 51 cases are being reported every hour and the outbreak is straining public hospitals in catastrophic proportions.    The virus is becoming more virulent and is reinfecting people who have already been infected.    Brazil had more than half of the 900,782 cases of dengue in the Americas last year, and of 317 deaths, 158 came in Brazil.
• 3/22/2008 Salmonella taints town's water system by AP.
      Denver - It could be three more weeks before residents of a southern Colorado town Alamosa can drink water straight from the tap after dozens of cases of salmonella poisoning were linked to municipal water, putting seven people in the hospital.    They are disinfecting the water with chlorine.
• 3/23/2008 FDA: Honduran cantaloupes have risk of salmonella by AP.
      Washington - People should throw away cantaloupes from a Honduran manufacturer believed to be linked to a slmonella outbreak.    The FDA issued an alert for melons from Agropecuaria Montelibano, where 50 people have become sickened in 16 states and 9 in Canada after eating the cantaloupes, with no deaths yet.
• 3/26/2008 Residents of mining towns face greater risk of disease by AP.
      Morgantown, W.Va. - Living near a coal mine can be hazardous to your health, according to a West Virgina University researcher where they face a higher risk of chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases.
• 4/3/2008 Genes may be to blame for smoking cancer link by Seth Borenstein, AP.
      Washington - Why do some 90-year-old chain smokers avoid lung cancer, while other people who smoke far less wind up dying of the disease?    How can some people light up now and then without getting hooked, while others are addicted from their first puffs?    The answer may be in their genes.    Scientists have identified certain genetic variations that appear to make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more prone to develop lung cancer.    One surprising point is these are found in the areas of the genetic code that are not associated with pleasure and the rewards of addiction.
• 4/9/2008 Reported heparin deaths up sharply by AP.
      Washington - Sixty-two deaths now are associated with contaminated batches of blood thinner heparin, triple of the previous estimate, the FDA said.    Many of these deaths were not reported until after the tainted blood thinner made headlines.    The FDA found a compound derived from animal cartilage in raw heparin coming from China, as the chief suspect.    Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and China is the world's leading supplier, and at some point the contaminant was introduced.
• 4/26/2008 Risks of Lasik under scrutiny by Johnathan D. Rockoff, The Baltimore Sun.
      Washington - A decade after approving the Lasik laser eye procedure for vision correction, federal health officials moved to explore potential risks in the country's most popular surgery.    Almost 8 million Americans have had the procedure, and most ended up discarding their glasses and contact lenses without long-term complications.    But a small fraction complain of serious side effects that have left their eyes painfully dry and their vision marred by ghostly shadows or starbursts of color.    Some say their sight is so poor they can't watch a movie or drive at night.
      Now the FDA plans to launch a national study.
• 4/28/2008 Gene therapy fights blindness by Stephanie Nano, AP.
      New York - Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to dramatically improve sight in people with a rare form of blindness called Leber's congenital amaurosis.    Some vision was restored in four of six young people who got the treatment by teams of researchers in the U.S. and Britain.    Two of the volunteers who could only see hand motions were able to read a few lines of an eye chart within weeks.    A phenomenal breakthrough according to Stephen Rose, chief research officer of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which helped pay for one study done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
      If it successful in large numbers, the technique has the potential to reverse blindness from other kinds of inherited eye diseases.    The teams injected millions of copies of a working gene beneath the retina in the back of the eye in one eye only, which allowed it to make a protein needed.
• 4/30/2008 Large-farm feeding risks cited in report by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today.
      The way America produces meat, milk and eggs is unsustainable, creates significant risks to public health from antibiotic resistance and disease, damages the environment, and unnecessarily harms animals, according to a report by Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.    They are suggesting ways to safeguard against the problems caused by moving to large, industrial-style feeding facilities, which comes with a cost.
  
  • The use of small doses of antibiotics in animal feed to boost growth rather than to fight disease.    This increases the possibility that antibiotic-resistant strains of disease will surface in animals and people.
  • Large, confined feeding operations that bring together tens of thousands of chickens, pigs or cattle.    These produce enormous amounts of animal waste that can foul water, spread disease and cause respiratory problems.
      The report calls for a 10-year phaseout of troubling animal-farming practices.
• 5/2/2008 Outbreaks of measles are worst in six years by AP.
      Atlanta - Measles outbreaks in several states have lead to more than 70 cases so far this year, the worst in six years.    Most of the cases have been traced to outbreaks overseas and are mainly in children who were not vaccinated for religious or other reasons or were too young, according to the CDC.
• 5/4/2008 China orders alert after virus kills 23 children by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times.
      Beijing - The Chinese Health Ministry issued a nationwide alert over a virus that has killed 23 children and sickened more than 4,000 others, as it scrambled to fend off a potential scandal over a cover up.    The virus enterovirus-71, sometimes called hand, foot and mouth disease, hit the Guangdong province after coming from the Anhui province, and has broken out in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.    It is a perennial virus in the summer months in Asia, which is larger than usual this year.    Kindergartens have been ordered closed and has caused some panic with no children seen in the streets, at a time when the Summer Olympics were being prepared.    This was very similar to the 2003 epidemic of SARS.
• 5/7/2008 Fresh disease outbreaks reported across China by AP.
      Beijing - New outbreaks reported in three Chinese provinces (Yunnan, Jilin, Hainan) and the number of children infected with hand, foot and mouth disease went over 12,000, and death toll to 26.
• 5/12/2008 Scientists solve mystery of flu strains' origins by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times.
      Solving a 60-year-old mystery, researchers have concluded that new flu strains emerge in eastern and southeastern Asia, move to Europe and North America six to nine months later, then travel to South America, where they disappear forever.    The findings may help researchers pick the correct flu strains for each year's vaccine.    Influenza strikes up to 15 percent of the world population each year, killing, on average, about 250,000 to 500,000 people, according to the WHO.    About 300 million people annually are protected by an influenza vaccine, and flu virus mutates rapidly, particularly the gene for a surface protein called hemagglutinin that plays a key role in interacting with the human immune system, which limits vaccine protection.
      For decades, researchers have debated where these mutations occur.    The University of Cambridge studied more than 13,000 samples of influenza A virus collected on six continents between 2002 and 2007.    They studied differences in the hemagglutinin molecules on the surfaces of viruses by measuring how strongly each one bound to an antibody.    They found that once the viruses leave Asia, they don't change much more, and they rarely return.
• 5/14/2008 Seoul poultry killed to curb bird-flu outbreak by AP.
      Seoul, South Korea - South Korean officials say they have killed all poultry in Seoul, 15,000 chickens, ducks, pheasants and turkeys, to curb the spread of bird flu because of a new outbreak of the disease in the city.
• 6/4/2008 Tyson killing 15,000 hens exposed to bird-flu virus by Jon Gambrell, AP.
      Little Rock, Ark. - Tyson Foods Inc., has begun killing by gas and burying 15,000 hens from a flock that tested positive for exposure to H7N3, a less virulent strain of the bird flu, not H5N1 in northwest Arkansas, state officials said.    All farms within 6.2 miles will be checked.    They speculate that a large group of Canadian geese made home on a pond very near the facility, which may have been carried in by foot.
• 6/4/2008 Nine states report salmonella linked to raw tomatoes by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico, and 30 more in Indiana, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho and Illinois.    The CDC is investigating the source.
• 6/8/2008 Salmonella is now in 16 states, CDC says by Matt Mygatt, AP.
      Albuquerque, N.M. - The salmonella food poisoning has spread to 16 states, now 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico, with California, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin added to the list.    Still the source has not been identified, which began on April 16 and May 27.
• 6/11/2008 Plastic baby bottles safe, FDA official says by Kevin Freking, AP.
      Washington - Plastic baby bottles and water bottles are safe from conclusions from animal studies, a federal health official said, seeking to ease public concerns about the chemical bisphenol A used in the products.    Canada is intent on banning the use of the chemical in baby bottles and the U.S. has legislation to ban it from children's products.    Small amounts of bisphenol A can be released as plastics break down, but the level of exposure is stated as safe.    The chemical is also used in helmets to compact discs to goggles.    They are also reviewing the safety of phthalates, which are used to make vinyl soft and flexible, used in medical devices (IV tubes), cars and toys.
• 6/16/2008 Drug may curb more cancers by Sara Cunningham, The Courier-Journal.
      Some people might be able to avoid head and neck cancer if they recieve a special vaccine that protects against the HPV, according to the University of Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center.    A study done by Dr. A. Bennett Jenson found that the HPV was present in about one-third of the head and neck cases.    About 35,000 men and women in the U.S. will develop head and neck cancer in 2008, about 5 percent of all cancers reported.
• 6/22/2008 Animal-disease outbreak costs compared in study by Ted Bridis, AP.
      Washington - An outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations being considered for a new high-security laboratory would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than an outbreak from the existing isolated Plum Island, N.Y., a lab where such research is now conducted, the government acknowledges in a 1,005-page report.    An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could surpass $4 billion if the lab were near livestock herds in Kansas or Texas.
      The five locations the Bush administration are considering are Athens, Ga.; Manhattan, Kan.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss.    Now they are considering a new lab on Plum Island.
• 6/23/2008 New clue to Alzheimer's found by Randolph E. Scmid, AP.
      Washington - Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer's disease.    The donated brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein.    Also involved are tangles of a protein called tau; some scientists suspect this is the cause.    Now, researchers led by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School have caused Alzheimer's symtoms in rats by injecting them with one of three particular forms of beta-amyloid (different number of molecules).    Injections with the other two forms of beta-amyloid did not cause illness, explaining why some people have the plaque in their brains but do not show symptons.    The beta-amyloid seemed to affect synapses, the connections between cells that are essential for communication between them.
• 7/6/2008 FDA reports increase in salmonella cases by AP.
      Washington - The government increased the reported number of people stricken in a record salmonella outbreak to 943 cases nationwide, 130 hospitalized.    The FDA said it has begun looking at jalapeno peppers (cilantro and Serano) as a possible cause.
• 7/7/2008 Mutant mosquitoes could combat malaria by AP.
      London - Scientists in a laboratory in London's Imperial College have been genetically modifying hundreds of mosquitoes, hoping to stop them from spreading malaria.    Malaria kills nearly 3 million people worldwide every year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.    So they created mutant mosquitoes resistant to the disease might work better, and the WHO is investigating its use.    Environmentalists worry that the genetically modified mosquitoes might wreak havoc in the ecosystem.    It is still under research for it to be used.
• 7/10/2008 Salmonella toll at 1,000; hot peppers investigated by AP.
      Washington - More than 1,000 people are now confirmed ill from salmonella, with 2 deaths, making it the worst food-bourne outbreak in at least a decade.    The government is still looking at tomatoes and hot peppers.
• 7/18/2008 Tomatoes safe to eat, FDA says by Lauran Neergaard, AP.
      Washington - It's OK to eat tomatoes again, the government said, lifting its salmonella warning, but hot peppers still get a caustion even after 1,220 people in 42 states have been sickened from April 10 to date.
• 7/22/2008 Salmonella found in jalapeno by Lauran Neergaard, AP.
      Washington - Government inspectors finally have a clue in the salmonella outbreak: They found the bacteria on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled by a small Texas produce shipper, but still do not know where the pepper became tainted, or how widely its produce was distributed from the plant Agricola Zargosa in McAllen, Texas.    At present there are 1,251 confirmed cases in 43 states and may still be spreading.
• 7/25/2008 Congress OKs global AIDS bill by Jim Abrams, AP.
      Washington - The House voted to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, and the bill now goes to President Bush for the five-year, $48 billion plan.
• 7/30/2008 U.N.: AIDS epidemic stable, fewer deaths by Maria Cheng, AP.
      London - Fewer people are dying of AIDS, more patients are on HIV medication and the global AIDS epidemic is stable after peaking in the late 1990s.    The drawback is as patients live longer it will cost more to treat them.    About 67 percent of all people infected with HIV and 72 percent of deaths from AIDS is in sub-Saharan, outside of that region it mainly affects drug users, gay men and prostitutes.
• 7/30/2008 Alzheimer's drug shows early promise by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Chicago - For the first time, an experimental drug, Rember, shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer's disease by breaking up the protein tangles that clog patients' brains.    Developed by Singapore-based TauRx Therapeutics, but is still years away from being available, but they are excited since it did stop mental decline.    The early research into the tangles, which are made of a protein called tau and develp inside nerve cells.    The protein beta-amyloid, which forms sticky clumps outside of the cells has yet to get a workable treatment.
• 8/3/2008 AIDS prevention efforts show results by David Brown, The Washington Post.
      Washington - New federal estimates of the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. reveal that the numbers are worse than thought rising more that a quarter-million people since 1998, due to life-extending drugs.    The number of new cases has declined slightly over that period.    There were 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006, an increase from the 40,000 annual estimate.    The CDC spends about $750 million a year on AIDS prevention.
• 8/18/2008 Ebola may have a weakness by AP.
      Ebola, the mysterious virus responsible for periodic deadly outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in Africa, may have an Achilles' heel, scientists at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., reported.    They revealed the shape of a protein the virus uses to enter healthy cells, providing a possible target for drugs, and also that some parts of the virus are similar in structure to parts of the HIV and Epstein-Barr virus, helping them understand why some diseases manage to bypass the body's defenses.    More than 1,850 human cases, including 1,200 deaths have been recorded since Ebola was first identified more than three decades ago in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire.
• 8/28/2008 City's HIV rate is triple the national figure by AP.
      New York - New data show New York City residents are contracting the virus that causes AIDS at three times the national rate.    Almost 4,800 New Yorkers were infected with HIV in 2006, representing 72 of every 100,000 residents, compared to 23 nationally.    Probably a larger population of gay men, blacks and other groups on whom HIV has taken a heavy toll.
• 9/19/2008 Vaccine confidence urged by physicians by AP.
      Chicago - A new coalition of 22 major medical groups says public confidence in vaccine safety needs to be restored to avoid risks for deadly disease outbreaks.    Their concern stems from recent measle outbreaks in several U.S. cities after last month a 131 children had gotten measles this year, the most in a decade.    Half of those were from parents who rejected vaccination and others to outbreaks overseas, more than 77 percent of children have had the vaccination.
• 10/2/2008 Origin of HIV traced to 1908 by Malcolm Ritter, AP.
      New York - The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.    Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin to between 1884 and 1924, with 1908 the focus.    Previously they thought it was around 1930, and not recognized until 1981.    The research notes the new dates occur during the rise of cities in Africa, giving HIV an urban development to establish and spread, believed to have descended from a chimpanzee that jumped to humans, during butchering, and eventually through prostitution.    The discovery of an HIV sample that had been taken from a woman in Kinshasa in 1960, along with two others from 1976 and 1959.    So by taking all the old and new samples they created a family tree for when the virus appeared.
• 10/23/2008 Serious drug reactions set a record by Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar, AP.
      Washington - The number of serious drug reactions and deaths reported to the government shot up in the first three months of this year to set a record, the Institute for Safe Medical Practises said.    The FDA had nearly 21,000 reports of serious drug reactions, including more than 4,800 deaths.    Two drugs accounted for a large share: heparin, the tainted blood thinner from China, the other was Chantix, a new anti-smoking drug from Pfizer, which I am taking myself right now.    Chantix, which had the most reports of any medication, works directly in a smoker's brain to ease withdrawal symptons, and blocks the pleasurable effects of nicotene.    Earlier this year, the FDA warned that Chantix may be linked to psychiatric problems, including suicidal behavior and vivid dreams.    Pfizer says the volume of reports may be linked to publicity about the side effects.    Well I have not smoked for 27 days, had no nausea and no wierd dreams.
• 10/23/2008 Vaccine urged for adult smokers by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - For the first time, a government panel is recommending a vaccination specifically for smokers.    The panel decided that adult smokers under 65 should get pneumococcal vaccine, which protects against bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis and other illnesses.    This would mean that 31 million smokers will soon get called on to get the shot.    Made by Merck & Co., it's sold under the name Pneumovax and costs about $30 a dose, and is good for 5 to 10 years.
• 10/26/2008 Vaccine slashes illness in kids by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Washington - A vaccine against rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea in infants, has led to a dramatic drop in hospital and ER visits since it came on the market two years ago.    Since Merck & Co.'s Rotateq came out in 2006 visits have dropped by 80 percent, which had been given to half the population of children at age 2, 4 and 6 months of age.    GlaxoSmithKline came out with Rotarix which only required 2 doses.
• 10/28/2008 Staph germs growing threat by Marilyn Marchione, AP.
      Washington - Drug-resistant staph bacteria (MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) picked up in ordinary community settings are increasingly acquiring "superbug" powers and causing far more serious illnesses than they have in the past, doctors reported.    They are coming into hospitals, sports teams, in schools,and pose a growing threat, where they swap gene components with other bacteria and grow even more dangerous.
• 11/9/2008 Gene may have role in lung cancer by Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal.
      A large 18-country international genetic study suggest that some people's genes make them more susceptible to lung cancer.    They examined genetic variations in 15,000 people - 6,000 with lung cancer and 9,000 without.
• 11/22/2008 Russia's efforts to fight AIDS lambasted by AP.
      Moscow - A top Russian anti-AIDS coordinator lambasted the government's approach to fighting HIV, saying the number of registered cases was growing 10 percent a year despite increased federal funding, misguided focus on treatment instead of prevention.
• 12/9/2008 Malaria vaccine shows promise in Africa by Stephanie Nano, AP.
      New York - a vaccine that may become the first to prevent malaria shows promise in protecting African children, researchers said.    In early tests, the experimental vaccine from British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC was more than 50 percent effective in infants and toddlers in Africa.    Larger tests are slated for 2009, with marketing approval as early as 2011.    A non-profit group started with a grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop a malaria vaccine and teamed with the company to do this to stop an estimated 247 million people worldwide from getting the disease each year.
• 12/10/2008 WHO says cancer will soon be the No. 1 killer by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, and could more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030.    Rising tobacco use is believed to be the reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, expecting to hit 12 million cases this year, with 7 million deaths according to the WHO.
  
  The year 2009.
  
  
• 1/15/2009 Va. company recalls peanut butter nationwide by Sue Lindsey, AP.
      Roanoke, Va. - A peanut butter maker that sells bulk supplies to institutions issued a nationwide recall as officials reported two more deaths associated with a salmonella outbreak.    Lynchburg-based Peanut Corp. of America issued the recall for 21 lots of peanut butter made since July 1 at its plant in Blakely, Ga., because of possible salmonella contamination.    The outbreak has sickened more than 430 people in 43 states.
• 1/18/2009 Warning on peanut butter issued by AP.
      Washington - Federal health authorities urged consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods that contain peanut butter paste until they can learn more about a deadly outbreak of salmonella contamination.
• 2/5/2009 Study finds drug combo made colon cancer worse by Stephanie Nano, AP.
      New York - Doctors thought that combining two newer drugs, Erbitux and Avastin, that more precisely attack cancer would help people with advanced colon cancer.    Instead, it made the cancer worse and made patients more miserable, a study found.    Since both drugs attack tumors in different ways, the thinking was that the combo would do a better job of keeping the cancer from growing.
• 2/11/2009 Study: Multivitamins don't prevent disease by Lindsey Tanner, AP.
      Chicago - The largest study ever of multivitamin use in older women found the pills did nothing to prevent common cancers or heart disease.    The eight-year study in 161,808 postmenopausal women echoes recent disappointing vitamin studies in men.    Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamins to boost their health.    Research has focused on cancer and heart disease and found no benefit from pills, but said get the nutrients from food, unless you have poor eating habits.
• 2/11/2009 Experimental gel might help prevent AIDS virus by AP.
      Atlanta - An experimental vaginal gel made by Massachusetts-based Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc., has shown promise in preventing infection from AIDS virus with hope that a microbicide may join the medical arsenal in the international battle against HIV, scientists announced.
• 2/11/2009 Peanut executives called to testify about outbreak by AP.
      Washington - A congressional committee issued a subpoena for the top executive, Stewart Parnell of a small company that allegedly shipped the tainted peanut products responsible for a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 600 people and may have contributed to eight deaths.
• 2/13/2009 Hospital finds source of Legionnaire's disease by AP.
      Atlanta - Atlanta's largest hospital, Grady Memorial, has found the bacteria that caused Legionnaire's disease in patients' rooms, and officials said it likely sickened four people who were treated here.    However, 80 beds are off limits while the hospital tests and flushes the water system with hyperchlorinated water.
• 2/13/2009 Genetic code of the cold unraveled by Lauran Neergard, AP.
      Washington - Scientists have unraveled the genetic code of the common cold - all 99 known strains of it.    But don't expect it to lead to a cure for sniffling any time soon.    It turns out that rhinoviruses are even more complicated than originally thought.    The blueprint showed that you can catch two separate strains of cold at the same time - and those strains then can swap their genetic material inside your body to make a whole new strain.    So we will never have a vaccine for the common cold, but maybe a drug.
      Adults typically get two to four colds a year, while childen may get as many as 10.    The rhinovirus can also trigger asthma attacks and play a role in sinusitis, ear infection and pneumonia.
• 2/15/2009 First new gout treatment in 40 years is approved by AP.
      Washington - The FDA has approved the first new treatment for gout in more than 40 years, the company Takeda Inc. said.    Uloric, is a once-daily drug for gout, a painful joint disease that mainly strikes middle-aged men, caused by a build up of uric acid in the blood and about 5 million people in the U.S. suffer from.
• 3/18/2009 Report: 'Smart drug' use likely isn't by AP.
      Chicago - A so-called "smart drug" popular with young people may carry more of an addiction risk that thought, a small government study suggests.    Scans of 10 healthy men showed the prescription drug Provigil caused changes in the brain's pleasure center, very much like potentially habit-forming classic stimulants.    Modafinil, the drug's generic name, is sometimes used as an illegal study aid by college students.    This drug was approved to treat excessive daytime sleepiness caused by narcolepsy since 1999, but now has a reputation as a brain enhancer which stemmed from an Air Force study that found it improved the performance of sleep-deprived fighter pilots.    The drug releases Dopamine, the brain's "feel good" neurotransmitters, linked with addiction.
• 3/23/2009 Drug-resistant TB a growing concern by Juliana Barbassa, AP.
      San Francisco - Even as tuberculosis rates decline in the U.S., drug-resistant strains of the disease are showing up in states with large immigrant populations and are becoming hard to treat.
• 3/31/2009 Inhibitor for HIV grown in tobacco by Chris Kenning, The Courier-Journal.
      Scientists have worked for years to create an HIV prophylactic to compete with the condom -- a gel that would allow women in developing nations, to reduce the risk of getting AIDS.    Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center announced that one of its scientists had used Kentucky tobacco plants to cheaply grow a potent protein-based drug that inhibits HIV, which is now in clinical studies, which could be on the shelves around the world as early as 2015.
• 4/1/2009 Raw pistachios may be bacteria source by AP.
      Terra Bella, Calif. - The salmonella scare that prompted a blanket federal warning against eating pistachios may have erupted becaused contaminated raw nuts got mixed with roasted nuts during the processing.
• 4/3/2009 FDA regulation of tobacco nearer by The Courier-Journal.
      Washington - The House passed legislation that allows the federal government to regulate tobacco products, jurisdiction over the production, marketing and sale of such.
• 4/8/2009 Bird flu confirmed: W. Ky farm quarantined by Roger Alford, AP.
      Frankfort, Ky. - State and federal authorities are investigating an outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in Western Kentucky near Brownsville in Edmonson County, that produces hatching eggs for Perdue Farms Inc. with 20,000 chickens that were euthanized.
• 4/15/2009 Bedbugs biting - if you let them or not by Dina Cappiello, AP.
      Washington - A growing nightmare of tiny reddish-brown insects, bedbugs, last seen prior to World War II, are on the rebound in an outbreak.    They have infested college dormitories, hospital wings, homeless shelters and swanky hotels from New York City to Chicago to Washington.    They live in the crevices and folds of mattresses, sofas and sheets, and before dawn, they emerge to feed on human blood.    Complaints has forced the EPA to host its first-ever bedbug summit, at issue there is few chemicals on the market approved of use on mattresses that are effective at reducing bedbug numbers.    International travel has increased the chances for the bugs to hitchhike from developing countries that never eradicated them completely and may be on a worldwide resugence.    One of these chemicals is DDT.    Bedbugs do not transmit any diseases, but some people can have allergic reaction to their bites, where they release an anticoagulant to get blood flowing, and excrete a numbing agent so their bites don't stir a victim's slumber.
      So sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite.
• 4/15/2009 Cancer vaccine shows promise by MArilynn Marchione, AP.
      An experimental treatment that takes a new approach to fighting prostate cancer extended survival in a late-stage study, the seattle-based Dendreon Corp. said its Provenge cancer vaccine.    No side effect information was given, but the vaccine treats cancer by training the immune system to fight tumors, instead of surgery, radiation, hormones and chemotherapy used now.
• 4/23/2009 'Morning after' pill age rules loosened by AP.
      Washington - Seventeen year-olds will be able to buy the "morning-after" emergency contraceptive without a doctor's prescription dealing a blow to conservatives.    This was another reversal of the Bush administration policies of women 18 and older, pushed by women's groups as long overdue but avoids parental rights and the safety of minors.
• 4/23/2009 Nations race to stop swine flu outbreak by Lauran Neergaard, AP.
      Washington - The world's governments raced to avoid both a pandemic and global hysteria as more possible swine flu cases surfaced from Canada to New Zealand and the U.S. declared a health emergency.    Mexico, the outbreak's epicenter with up to 86 suspected deaths, then Canada confirmed six people who had come back from Mexico.    Not a global pandemic yet, but concerns on this new strain of the virus could spread easily and to take steps before it could happen.    On the 27th, the world wondered if the unique form of swine flu was the long expected epidemic that killed million as it did in 1918, 1957 and 1968.    No one knew for sure how extreme it will be.    There is no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC has taken steps for producing one, by creating a seed stock of the virus should it be necessary.
• 4/29/2009 U.S. flu deaths likely as virus spreads by Tom Raum, AP.
      Washington - Warnings of swine-flu deaths in the U.S. came out as the disease killed scores (152) in Mexico as the U.S. confirmed cases was raised to 68, with 45 in New York, 13 in California, 6 in Texas, 2 in Kansas and 1 in Indiana and Ohio, along with 13 in Canada, 54 in New Zealand, 18 in Spain, 9 in Scotland, 2 in Israel, and 1 in France.
• 4/30/2009 Swine flu outbreak now in 11 states by AP.
      Washington - The swine flu outbreak spread to 11 states with two deaths as the total confirmed cases rose to 100, with Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Maine and Nevada were added to it.
• 5/1/2009 America's swine flu cases pass 100 by AP.
      Washington - Mexico had 168 deaths and the U.S. 131 confirmed cases with 1 death, Canada 34 cases, states added were Colorado, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Georgia.    The WHO renamed the swine Flu to H1N1 influenza A, to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs since Egypt slaughtered thousands of pigs to prevent the disease and countries were banning pork products.
• 5/2/2009 FDA: Stop using diet drug Hydroxycut by AP.
      Washington - The FDA warned dieters and body builders to immediately stop using Hydroxycut, a widely sold supplement linked to 23 cases of serious liver damage and at least one death.
• 5/2/2009 Flu continues spreading in U.S. by AP.
      Washington - Obama voiced hope that the swine flu will run its course like ordinary flu as confirmed cases have risen from 109 to 141 in 19 states (adding New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Virginia, Kentucky and Nebraska), because the virus lacks genes that made the 1918 pandemic strain so deadly, and deaths in Mexico are leveling off.    On the 11th the first suspected swine flu case on mainland China was reported.
• 5/18/2009 Scientists work to outflank AIDS/HIV by Randolph E. Schmid, AP.
      Washington - Scientists are now trying to outflank the HIV/AIDS virus by inserting a gene into the muscle that can cause it to produce protective antibodies against HIV.    The method worked in mice and now has proved successful in monkeys, too by Dr. Philip R. Johnson, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.    But it will be years before the product is ready for human use, but gives light to the end of the tunnel.
• 5/29/2009 New, deadly virus uncovered in Africa by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - Scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus.    The so-called "Lujo" virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall.    The bug is from a family of viruses found in rodents and really aggressive especially with contact with infected body fluids with symtoms of fever, shock, coma and organ failure.    Tests determined it belonged to the arenavirus family and distantly related to Lassa fever, another disease found in Africa.
• 6/10/2009 Swine flu spike may spur declaration of pandemic by AP.
      Geneva - The WHO said a spike in swine flu cases in Australia may push it to finally announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years.    It also expressed concern about an unusual rise in severe illness from the disease in Canada.    The WHO chief, Keiji Fukuda said the agency wanted to avoid adverse effects if it announce a global outbreak of swine flu where people might panic or governments might take inappropriate actions.
• 6/12/2009 Swine flu pandemic declared by Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal.
      With swine flu cases increasing globally, the WHO has declared a pandemic, from Geneva after an emergency meeting on the new H1N1 virus which is spreading in at least two regions of the world.    As of yesterday, 74 countries had reported 28,774 confirmed cases and 144 deaths with infections on the rise in Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.    The U.S. had the most cases -- 13,217 (27 deaths)-- with Kentucky reporting 103 and Indiana 201.    The virus is now unstoppable and we should prepare for a second wave.
• 6/26/2009 1 million Americans probably have swine flu by AP.
      Atlanta - Swine flu has infected as many as 1 million Americans, U.S. health officials said, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban populations are infected.    Regular seasonal flu sickens anywhere from 15 million to 60 million Americans each year.
• 7/2/2009 WHO opens 3-day session on swine flu by AP.
      Geneva - The WHO said 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, with the help of 20 experts for 3 days.    As of today 77,201 confirmed cases and 332 deaths have bee reported in more than 110 countries.
• 7/7/2009 Battling swine flu may cost $1 billion by AP.
      Geneva - The U.N. may need more than $1 billion this year to help poor countries get some vaccine doses and antivirals to fight the global swine flu epidemic, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
• 7/10/2009 Virulent bacteria's rise linked to antibiotic use by Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal.
      Doctors are calling the next big bacterial threat - Clostridium difficile, with symptons of diarrhea for weeks and a threat of surgery to remove an appendix, gall bladder and parts of colon if the dangerous infection is contracted caused by bacteria known as C. diff.    This bacteria is tied to hospitalization or antibiotic use, and rising as many as 3 million Americas a year suffer diarrhea, inflammation of the colon and other problems which doctors say is beginning to rival the staph infection MRSA, as a deadly superbug.
• 7/22/2009 WHO: Swine flu deaths double in a month by AP.
      Geneva - The WHO said worldwide death toll from swine flu has doubled in the past month, surpassing 700 since the start of the outbreak last spring.    Now they are concerned with how to tackle the expected explosion in cases predicted this fall, when students and workers in the northern hemisphere return from summer vacation.
• 7/25/2009 Big swine flu impact seen by Mike stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - U.S. health officials from the CDC say swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures are not successful.    The U.S. may have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available sometime in October.    The infection estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the U.S.    In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die of flu and its complications according to the AMA.    The WHO says as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years, nearly a third of the world population.    As of today there has been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 reported cases.
• 7/25/2009 Agent Orange linked to 2 diseases by Richard Lardner, AP.
      Washington - Medical researchers at the Institute of Medicine say there may be a link between exposure to the defoilant Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War and an increased chance of developing serious heart problems and Parkinson's disease.    Sponsored by the Veteran Affairs Department to determine the full extent of toxic effects of Agent Orange so exposed Vietnam veterans can get disability benefits they are entitled to.    American forces sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other defoilants over parts of Vietnam from 1962 to 1970, and those troops complained of numerous health problems.
• 8/1/2009 Abortion drug RU-486 approved for use by AP.
      Rome - Italy has approved the use of the abortion drug RU-486, defying opposition from the Vatican, which warned of immediate excommunication for doctors prescribing the pill and for women who use it.    The drug terminates pregnancy by causing the embryo to detach from the uterine wall and can only be administered by doctors in a hospital.
• 9/12/2009 CDC: Flu widespread in U.S. by Randolph E. Schmid, AP.
      Washington - Influenza is circulating unusually early this year with cases in all 50 states -- nearly all the swine flu variety.    The highest concentration of flu cases is in the Southeast, the good news is that testing of vaccines for swine flu show that they work with a single dose and take effect rapidly, but will not be available until mid-October, though the seasonal flu vaccine is available now.    Currently 98 percent of the flu viruses circulating are swine flu in children and young adults.
• 9/13/2009 Study: Dangerous bacteria found on beaches by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      San Francisco - Dangerous staph bacteria have been found in sand and water for the first time at five public beaches on the coast of Washington, and scientists think the state is not the only one with this problem.    The germ is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- a hard to treat bug rarely seen outside of hospitals but is spreading in ordinary community settings such as schools, gyms and locker rooms.    The germ causes nasty skin infections as well as pneumonia and other life-threatening problems.
• 9/27/2009 New wave of swine flu hits Mexico: closings are unlikely by Catherine E. Shoichet, AP.
      Mexico City - The next wave of swine flu has arrived, and Mexicans are bracing for an outbreak that might be larger tha the one last spring with 483 new cases in one day.    Mexico could see up to 5 million cases of swine flu during this winters flu season and deaths could reach 2,000.    This year they have had 29,417 reported cases and 226 deaths.
• 10/10/2009 CDC reports 76 children have died of swine flu as cases rise by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - The CDC said 76 children have died of swine flu, including 19 new reports in the past week, more evidence that the new virus is dangerous for the young who have no immunity to it.    10 more states, a total of 37 now have widespread swine flu, and 600 have died and more than 9,000 hospitalized, as vaccinations began this week as states have ordered 3.7 million doses.    Demand is exceeding supply, and people are seeking the vaccination.
• 10/18/2009 Swine flu claims 11 more kids in U.S. by Lauren Neergaard, AP.
      Washington - Delays in vaccine production mean 28 to 30 million doses will be divided around the country by the end of the month.    The H1N1 flu is now in 41 states as 11 more children have died in the past week to total 86, and this new flu can dive deeper into the lungs, in small subsets of patients who go into respiratory failure within days.
• 10/19/2009 Pet turtles are linked to salmonella outbreak by AP.
      Chicago - Two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide in 34 states.    Despite a 1975 ban on selling small turtles as pets, they continue to be sold illegally and some parents did not know turtles can carry samonella.
• 11/3/2009 Study ties antibiotics to birth defects by Carla K. Johnson, AP.
      Chicago - Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects.    They claim the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy - penicillins - appear to be the safest.    The study found that mothers of babies with birth defects had taken sulfa drugs (Thiosulfil Forte and Bactrim) and urinary germicides called nitrofurantonis (Furadantin and Macrobid).    The birth defects linked to sulfa drugs include rare brain and heart problems, and shortened limbs, and those linked to nitrofurantoins included heart problems and cleft palate.
• 11/3/2009 U.S. grant issued for patch to ease pot withdrawal by Marcus Green, The Courier-Journal.
      The federal government has awarded a Kentucky pharmaceutical company, AllTranz Inc. of Lexington, more than $2 million in stimulus to develop a patch that will ease the withdrawal symptoms of marijuana.    This means spending taxpayers money on a patch called Marinol, that delivers tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is raising questions about that since schools and roads are crumbling and unemployment is skyrocketing
• 11/21/2009 Mutated swine flu found in Norway by Rob Stein, The Washington Post.
      Scientists in Norway announced they had detected a mutated form of the swine flu virus in two patients who died of the flu and third who was severely ill.    The mutation could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and cause more severe disease.    So far the mutated virus does not circulate in the population, and may have only occurred in these three patients.
• 11/23/2009 Vaccine may offer new way to quit smoking by Mike Musgrove, The Washington Post.
      A small company in Rockville, Md, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, has created a vaccine for people who want to kick the smoking habit, which is in the late stages of testing.    They are striking a deal with pharmaceutical giant Glaxo-SmithKline, who will pick up the cost of developing and marketing the vaccine, called NicVax.    The vaccine shuts down nicotine's access to the brain, preventing any of the stimulating effects they crave from nicotine.    NicVax causes the immune system to create antibodies that bond with the nicotine molecule if it enters the bloodstream.    The result is a molecule too large to pass along to the brain.    NicVax may be available by 2011.
• 12/4/2009 Hepatitis drug shows promise by Thomas H. Maugh II, The Los Angeles Times.
      An experimental antiviral drug that works by a different mechanism than existing drugs has been shown to suppress hepatitis C in chimpanzees and beginning clinical trials in humans.    The drug called SPC3649, binds to RNA required by the virus for replication, preventing it from proliferating in the liver, and has no toxic side effect, and does not allow development of resistance and last after treatment ends.
  
  The year 2010.
  
  
• 1/24/2010 Salmonella concern spurs voluntary recall of salami by AP.
      Burrillville, R.I. - A Rhode Island meat company, Daniele International Inc., voluntarily recalled 1.24 million pounds of pepper-coated salami over concerns about salmonella contamination.    After a multistate investigation of a salmonella outbreak that's sickened 184 people in 38 states since July.    The company was identified as the source of the outbreak by an epidemiologist at the public health division in Oregon, even though the company said there no evidence that points to us as the source.
• 2/4/2010 Denture cream, zinc under fire - Neurological problems cited by Darla Carter, The Courier-Journal.
      Using denture cream might seem like an innocuous thing, but it contains zinc, with health risks some health-care providers say.    Dr. Sharon NAtions, a Texas neurologist and colleagues have seen neurological problems in people who used large amounts of zinc-contianing denture cream, such as two or more tubes a week, spawning lawsuits across the country.
  
• 2/6/2010 H1N1 still spreading but pace is slower - Its unusual activity concerns officials by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times.
      Los Angeles - The odds of a third wave of pandemic H1N1 influenza hitting this spring seem to be declining, but authorities are concerned the virus is still spreading - albeit at a reduced rate from its peak.
      Nor is it disappearing as would be expected in a normal flu outbreak, federal officials said.
  
• 2/15/2010 Light therapy by Tom Avril, Philadelphia Inquirer.
      Philadelphia - In the war against cancer, using chemotherapy, radiation and finally surgery to cut it out the deadly tumor was squeezing her bile duct and had engulfed nearby arteries and was impossible to remove.    At Thomas Jefferson UIniversity Hospital in Philadelphia light was used.    The patient was infused with medicine that made the tumor cells light sensitive.    Then two days later physician David Loren threaded a flexible fiber down through the patients intestines and bathed the cancerous mass with the glow of a red laser, which is called photodynamic therapy.    This is being done far more common in Europe, but gaining proponents in the U.S. where it has been approved for treating certain lung and skin cancers.    Loren is expanding its use participating with the University of Virginia-led effort to gain approval to use it on bile-duct tumors (cholangiocarcinoma).    Also at present it being used to combat prostate cancer in lab animals.
      The only side effect for the patient is the medicine would require them to stay away from bright light for several weeks or suffer a bad sunburn.    This kind of cancer kills more that 4,000 people in the U.S. each year, and its first signs is jaundice, but at this point it is too far along for surgery, and chemotherapy and radiation can only buy more time.    The light-sensitizing medicine is porfimer sodium, then two days later applied the light therapy, where the light had stimulated the production of a toxic form of oxygen, and within days, dead tumor cells would be discarded and carried away through the digestive system, and give the patient some relief.
  
• 2/21/2010 Report: Avandia maker, FDA knew of heart risks by AP.
      New York - A Senate report said that drug maker GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible heart attack risks tied to Avandia, its diabetes medication, years before such evidence became public.    Sen. Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley after a two year inquiry asked the U.S. FDA why it let a clinical trial of Avandia continue even after the agency estimated that the drug caused 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 2007.    GlaxoSmithKline said the drug is safe and the report took analyses data out of content.    A review by the FDA is in process.    In 2007, the FDA ordered a warning to be included on Avandia's label warning that it might increase the risk of heart attacks.
  
• 2/27/2010 Cruise ship back in port after norovirus outbreak by AP.
      Charleston, S.C. - A cruise ship hit by a virus outbreak that sickened hundreds returned with passengers glad to be back and praising the crew for the way they handled the challenge.    At the hieght of the outbreak 413 of more than 2,600 passengers and crew came down with intestimal ailments.    The CDC said tests showed the outbreak was caused by norovirus, which can spread quickly in closed quarters.
  
• 3/8/2010 AIDS virus can lurk in marrow, study finds - HIV may hide from drugs, resurface by Randolph E. Schmid, AP.
      Washington - The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.    Finding the hideout is a first step, but years of research lie ahead according to Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan and her colleagues.
      The virus is dormant in bone marrow cells, but when those progenitor cells develop into blood cells, it can be reactivated and cause renewed infection.    The virus kills the new blodd cells and then moves on to infect other cells.    This was the reason that AIDs patients had to keep taking the medicines for life.    The research was targeting blood cells called macrophages, then memory T-cells, but now they know where the source was coming from.
  
• 3/13/2010 Vaccine additive not tied to autism, court rules by AP.
      Washington - The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled in a long-running battle by parents convinced there is a connection, but they failed to show a connection between the mercury-containing preservative and autism.
• 3/21/2010 Lesser-known bug is big threat - Study: C-diff cases on rise in hospitals by Mike Stobbe, AP.
      Atlanta - MRSA, a dangerous, drug-resistant staph infection, is often seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health facilities    But infections from Clostridium difficle - know as C-diff - are surpassing MRSA infections, the study of 28 hospitals in the Southeast.
      MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are bacteria that can't be treated with common antibiotics.    They are harmless on the skin, but deadly once they get in the bloodstream, by way of wounds, intravenous lines and other paths.
      C-diff, also resistant to some antibiotics, is found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis.    It is spread by spores in feces, which are difficult to kill with household products.
      The hospitals counted 847 infections of hospital-acquired C-diff, and 680 cases of MRSA.
• 4/5/2010 Immunity challenge - New studies show why elderly weren't as likely to get swine flu - and warn about future outbreaks by Thomas Maugh II, Los Angeles Times.
      The elderly are normally the most susceptible to flu viruses, so it is a shock to find out that they were spared in the recent waves of pandemic H1N1 influenza.    The reason is the because they were exposed to a similar virus in the past and developed some antibodies that protected them, this of course was the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic that killed millions worldwide.    The hemagglutinin (the "H" in H1N1), the spike-shaped protein that binds the host cells, allowing the virus to enter and also recognized by antibodies allowing the immune system to destroy the virus.
      Despite more than 80 years of mutation, the two proteins had virtuallu identical amino acid sequences allowing the two to be recognized by the same antibodies.    In addition to mutating, flu viruses protect themselves from antibodies by shielding their binding sites with sugar molecules called glycans.    Pigs and birds do not have this mechanism due to short life cycles so the antibodies could find the virus.
  
• 4/14/2010 Hospital infections still on the rise by AP.
      Washington - The nation's hospitals are failing to protect patients from potentially fatal infections despites years of prevention campaigns, the government said.    Of five major types of serious hospital-related infections, rates of illnesses increased as many as 98,000 people a year die from medical errors.
• 4/15/2010 Gene is discovered with Alzheimer's link by AP.
      Miami - University of Miami researchers have identified a gene that appears to double a person's risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease.    The debilitating disease affects 5 million Americans, which may give hope in the next five to 10 years we can see major improvements a combination of therapies and prevention through exercise, both physical and mental, diet and other things.
  
• 4/16/2010 Hepatitis C vaccine fares well in study by Rob Waters, Bloomberg News.
      An experimental heaptitis C vaccine, used with existing drugs, cleared the virus from infected patients better than the medications alone.    The hepatitis drug, GI-5005, is the most advanced of several vaccine candidates developed by GlobeImmune, based in Louisville, Colo.    All use genetically modified yeast to produce proteins known as antigens that recognize diseased cells and provoke the body's infection-fighting system to attack them.
      The company is testing these vaccines against various viruses, fungal infection and types of cancer.
      More than 170 million people, 3 percent of the worldwide population, are infected with hepatitis C, a liver disease spread by contact with infected blood, often through the sharing of needles, according to the WHO.
      The vaccine was tested on 133 patients with a two-drug combination: the generic antiviral pill ribavirin and alpha interferon.
  
• 5/8/2010 Damages awarded in suits over hepatitis C outbreak by AP.
      Las Vegas - A jury ordered two drug companies, Teva Parental Medicines and Baxter Health Services, to pay a combine $500 million in punitive damages in the first of hundreds of civil cases stemming from a hepatitis C outbreak two years ago.
      The reusing of vials of the anesthetic propofol for infecting patients with the incurable liver disease infected as many as 114 patients.
  
• 5/8/2010 Source of E. coli lettuce sought by Mary Clare Jalonick, AP.
      Washington - Federal investigators are looking at a farm in Yuma, Ariz., as a possible source of a widespread E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, the distributor said.    Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio, said that it had recalled lettuce sold in 23 states and the District of Columbia because of a possible link to an E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least 19 people.
  
• 5/10/2010 U.S. cancer costs double in 20 years by AP.
      Atlanta - The cost of treating cancer in the U.S. nearly doubled over the past two decades, but expensive cancer drugs may not be the main reason why.    It is the growing number of cancer patients, as the study found cancer still accounts for only 5 percent of total U.S. medical costs.
  
• 5/17/2010 Study: Cellular-cancer link uncertain by AP.
      Geneva - Cell phone users worried about getting brain cancer aren't off the hook yet.    A major international study into the link between cell phone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive, according to a report.    A 10-year survey of nearly 13,000 people found most cell phone use didn't raise the risk of developing meningioma - a common and frequently benign tumor - or glioma - a rarer but deadlier cancer.    Although suggestion that using cell phones for more than 30 minutes each day could increase the risk of glioma, according to the study by WHO's international Agency for Research on Cancer.
  
• 5/17/2010 Many more children hospitalized with MRSA by AP.
      Chicago - The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged tenfold in recent years, a study found.    Disease incidence increased from 2 cases to 21 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions from 1999 to 2008.    Most infections were caught in the community, not in the hospital.
  
• 5/17/2010 Study links pesticides to ADD - Kids with higher levels are ADHD by Carla K. Johnson, AP.
      Chicago - A new analysis of U.S. health data links children's attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables.    Children may be more prone to pesticides' health risks because they're still growing and they may consume more pesticide residue than adults relative to their body weight.    In the body, pesticides break down into compounds that can be measured in urine.    The study found the compounds turned up in the urine of 94 percent of the kids.    The kids with higher levels had increased chances of having ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, which includes severe inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.    The study did not determine how they were exposed, but said children who do not live near farms are exposed through what they eat.    So we are all being exposed, and even tiny allowable amounts could affect brain chemistry.
      The study dealt with a pesticide called organophosphates, and levels of six pesticide compounds were measured.    For the most frequent compound detected, 20 percent of the children with above-average levels had ADHD.    In children with no detectable amount in their urine, 10 percent had ADHD.
  
• 6/6/2010 Drug shows promise in shrinking lung tumors by AP.
      Chicago - It's too soon to declare success, but an experimental drug for lung cancer patients with a certain gene showed extraordinary promise in early testing, doctors reported at a cancer conference.    More than 90 percent of the 82 patients in a study saw their tumors shrink after two months on Pfizer Inc.'s crizotinib.    Doctors had expected only about 10 percent of these very sick patients to respond to the drug according to Dr. Yung-Jue Bang of the Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea.
      Responses to crizotinib have lasted up to 15 months so far, and the drug has been rushed into late-stage testing.
• 6/6/2010 Melanoma study offers hope by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Chicago - Researchers have scored the first big win against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.    An experimental drug improved survival in a study of 676 people with very advanced disease.    The drug, ipilimumab, works by helping the immune system fight tumors.    The FDA has pledged a quick review, and doctors think the drug could be available by the end of this year, from its maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.    Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer and worldwide more than 50,000 people die of it each year, and last year in the U.S. more than 68,000 new cases were reported and 8,650 people died from the disease.
  
• 7/3/2010 Not too sweet: Hypertension sugar linked by Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times.
      Los Angeles - About 5 to 10 percent of U.S. adults were diagnosed with hypertension at the turn of the century, and today the figure is about 30 percent.    Why?
      Perhaps it's because there's so much more sugar in our diets now than there was a century ago.    Studies have linked consumption of fructose - the ingredient that makes up 50 percent of table sugar and 55 percent of high fructose corn syrup - to high blood pressure in rats.    But in people, the link has been elusive.
      Researchers from the University of Colorado at Denver checked to see whether added sugar intake was linked to blood pressure among the thousands who participated between 2003 and 2006.
      Overall, those who consumed at least 74 grams of fructose per day from added sugars were more likely to have high blood pressure anything over 140/90.
  
• 7/9/2010 Breakthrough in HIV-fighting antibodies found by Val Brickates Kennedy, MarketWatch.
      Boston - Government scientists have identified two human antibodies they believe can prevent 90 percent of known HIV strains from infecting cells, the NIH said by harnessing them to create more potent vaccines or better treatment that can lead to AIDS.    They identified the antibodies as VRC01 and VRC02.
  
• 7/20/2010 Gel helps prevent AIDS infection by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      For the first time, a vaginal gel has proved capable of blocking the AIDS virus, cutting in half a woman's chances of getting HIV from an infected partner in a study in South Africa.    The results need to be confirmed in another study, and that level of protection is not enough to win approval of the microbicide gel in countries such as the U.S. (80 percent required).    The gel is spiked with the AIDS drug tenofovir, cut the risk of HIV infection by 50 percent after one year of use and 39 percent after 2 and half years, compared to a gel that contained no medicine.    The gel also cut in half the chances of getting HSV-2, the herpes virus that causes genital warts.
  
• 8/20/2010 Illnesses from eggs likely to rise - CDC: Many sickened have not reported it by AP.
      A salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds and led to the recall of hundreds of millions of eggs from one Iowa firm will likely grow, federal health officials said.    Nearly 2,000 illnesses from the strain of salmonella linked to the eggs were reported between May and July, about 1,300 more than usual.    No deaths have been reported.    The recall of 380 million eggs from Iowa's Wright County Egg is one of the largest shell egg recall in recent history.
  
• 8/23/2010 Supplier in recall has history of violations - Salmonella in eggs leads to FDA probe by Mary Clare Jalonick, AP.
      Washington - Two Iowa farms that together recalled more than a half a billion potentially tainted eggs this month share close ties, including suppliers of chickens and feed.    Both farms are linked to Austin "Jack" DeCoster, who has been cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations over the years, and owns Wright County Egg.    Another of his companies, Quality Egg, supplies young chickens and feed to both Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, who also recalled 170 million eggs.    The FDA investigators are still trying to figure out the cause of the outbreaks.
  
• 8/31/2010 Rodents among egg farm troubles - Salmonella probe sees contaminants by Mary Clare Jalonick, AP.
      Washington - FDA investigators have found rodents, seeping manure and even maggots at the Iowa egg farms believed to be responsible for as many as 1,500 cases of salmonella poisoning.    The report shows many possible sources of contamination at both farms, including rodent, bug and wild bird infestation, uncontained manure tracked through by chickens, holes in walls, live flies on egg belts, in feed, on eggs, dead and live maggots on the manure pit floor.
  
• 9/2/2010 New test seen as leap in TB fight by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Scientists report a major advance in diagnosing tuberculosis: A new test can show in less than two hours, with very high accuracy, if someone has the disease and if it's resistant to the main drug for treating it.    It could revolutionize TB care and replace the 125-year-old process used now, which is slow and misses more than half of all cases, experts say.    People can spread the lung disease before being diagnosed and treated in some countries.    Dr. Peter Small, head of TB programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped fund the work, along with the federal government is having the WHO review the results.    TB kills about 1.8 million people a year and increasingly is caused by bacteria that are resistant to one or more drugs.    The test they devised is simple enough to be done with minimal training.    A mucus sample is taken, mixed with chemicals and put in an inkjet-like cartridge that goes into a machine - which amplifies the DNA in the sample and checks for bits of bacterial genes.    The entire process takes less than two hours.    The study tested it on 1,730 patients with suspected TB in Peru, Azerbaijan, South Africa and India, and successfully identified 98 percent of all confirmed TB cases and 98 percent of those resistant to rifampin, one of the top drugs to trreat the disease.    Besides WHO endorsement, Cepheid, a California-based disagnostic firm, will seek U.S. FDA approval for the test, which went on sale late last year in Europe.
  
• 9/10/2010 Vitamin B eyed as Alzheimer's disease fighter by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times.
      Los Angeles - High doses of B vitamins can reduce shrinkage of the brain that is frequently a precursor of Alzheimer's disease, British reasearchers reported.    The supplements reduced shrinkage by as much as 50 percent, giving hope that the vitamins can delay the onset of Alzheimer's.    Dr. A. David Smith of the University of Oxford and his colleagues studied 168 volunteers with mild cognitive impairment which is characterized by memory loss, language problems and other mental difficulties beyond those normally associated with aging.    An estimated 16 percent of people over the age of 70 have mild cognitive impairment, and about half of those proceed to Alzheimer's disease.    The study was simple: High levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood are thought to be linked to the development of Alzheimer's.    B vitamins are know to reduce homocysteine levels.    So half the test group got the vitamin called Triobe Plus and half of them a placebo.    The product, which is dispensed only by prescription, contains 0.8 milligrams folic acid, 0.5 mg cyanocobalamin and 20 mg pyridoxine hydrochloride.    That is about 300 times the recommended daily intake of vitamin B12, four times the dose of folate and 15 times of vitamin B6.    This is a drug, not a vitamin intervention.
  
• 9/11/2010 Cholera spreading in W. Africa - Over 1,000 dead in epidemic by John Gambrell, AP.
      Ganjuwa, Nigeria - Patients jammed clinics while health workers donned surgical masks and sprayed a chlorine solution on muddy paths as the government struggled to control a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 800 Nigerians in two months.    The worst epidemic in Nigeria in 19 years (1991 7,654 died) is spreading to Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where it has killed hundreds more.    Patients lay with blank eyes on fouled mattresses from severe diarrhea triggered by cholera as they were hooked up to IV tubes to try to rehydrate them intravenously.    Across West Africa, lack of clean drinking water is allowing the waterborne bacterial disease to bloom.    In Nigeria, 13,000 people have been sickened, 300 dead in Cameroon and 5,000 ill.    In Chad 40 dead and 600 are sick.
  
• 9/14/2010 Drug-resistant superbugs sicken people in three states by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Boston - Bacteria that have been made resistant to nearly all antibotics by an alarming new gene have sickened people in three states and are popping up across the world, health officials said.    The U.S. cases, in California, Massachusetts and Illinois, and two others in Canada all involve people who recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread.    How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown because there is no central tracking of such cases.    The gene called NDM-1 and named for New Delhi, and three types of bacteria where involved in the U.S. cases and three different mechanisms let the gene become part of them.    Physicians are to look for it in patients who have recently traveled to India or Pakistan according to the CDC.    India is an overpopulated country that overuses antibiotics and has widespread diarrheal disease and many without clean water.    Doctors have had to use antibiotics used in the 1950s and 60s that were unpopular because they can harm the kidneys, and are putting the patients they find in isolation to check close contacts for possible infection.
  
• 11/3/2010 Omega-3 fails in Alzheimer's study by Lindsey Tanner, AP.
      Chicago - Omega-3 pills containing DHA and promoted as boosting memory didn't slow mental or physical decline in older patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a $10 million government-funded study.    DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid occurs naturally in the brain and is found in reduced amounts in people with Alzheimer's disease.
  
• 11/18/2010 Promising Cholesterol Drug - Dramatic affect on levels stuns many doctors by Marilynn Marchione, AP.
      Chicago - An experimental drug boosted good cholesterol so high and dropped bad cholesterol so low in a study that doctors were stunned and voiced renewed hopes for an entirely new way of preventing heart attacks and strokes.    Dr. Christopher Cannon of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who led the study of the novel drug for Merck & Co., called anacetrapib.    It will not be on the market anytime soon.    It needs more testing to see if its dramatic effects on cholesterol will translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes and deaths.    Merck announced a 30,000-patient study to answer that question for several years.
  
• 12/8/2010 Aspirin also combats cancers, study finds by Chris Kay, Bloomberg News.
      London - Aspirin, a century-old medicine that relieves pain and prevents blood clots, also cuts the risk of death from various cancers.    Taking 75 milligrams of aspirin a day for more than five years cut deaths from various cancers by 20 percent, according to this study based on eight trials involving 25,570 patients.
  
  
  Stay tuned for what will happen beyond 2010.    Return each year for updates.
  

This file created on January 31, 2006, and updated on November 30, 2006, December 31, 2006, August 17, 2007, February 29, 2008, January 31, 2009, January 7, 2010, August 10, 2011, and October 11, 2011.