Shivering, you drag yourself, as if gun-shot, to the living room, to the old movie channel, to a Bogart festival, your mind fogged over (like the street on the screen) edging toward feverish sleep when Bogey snarls at Ida Lupino: “Of all the 14-carat saps...” Hours later when you wake, he’s smacking Peter Lorre: “When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!” And as if cuffed, you black out,...

In January, just when H1N1 swine flu virus might well have been hitting the headlines as the cause of one of the UK's worst epidemics of all time, there was an outbreak of a rather different kind. This was an outpouring of media assertions that last year both scientists and the government had grossly exaggerated the virus's likely impact. Alleged reasons for needless panic-mongering ranged from...

summed up a parallel that many health officials and journalists had noted: " Disturbing echoes of the great 1918 flu pandemic. " " The main danger of a new flu virus emerging from pigs is that it would not be recognised by the human immune system and so would result in severe infections that could quickly spread from one person to another, " The Independent noted. And there was no denying that ...

There are two types of flu vaccines: the injection and the nasal spray. Injectable flu vaccines usually contain inactivated strains of types A and B flu virus and help your body to provide immunity to these two common strains of the flu. The nasal spray vaccine contains a live, but weakened version of the same strains ? but its use isn't currently recommended [2]. Any immunity from these vaccin...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occur in complex mixtures present in the human environment. Because of the carcinogenic properties of some of these PAHs, they raise concerns regarding health and food safety. Because the occurrence of benzo[a]pyrene, chrysene, benz[a]anthracene, and benzo[b]fluoranthene (PAH4) are considered markers for other genotoxic PAHs in foodstuffs, the European Un...

BACKGROUND/AIM Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the most commonly chosen antidepressants in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of our study was to assess the influence of fluoxetine (Flu) on motor functions in patients with PD. METHODS In this prospective, controlled, open-label study, 18 patients with PD and mild depression [(10 < or = Hamilton Rating Scale for Depres...

There are two types of flu vaccines: the injection and the nasal spray. Injectable flu vaccines usually contain inactivated strains of types A and B flu virus and help your body to provide immunity to these two common strains of the flu. The nasal spray vaccine contains a live, but weakened version of the same strains ? but its use isn't currently recommended [2]. Any immunity from these vaccin...

OBJECTIVE Americans do not vaccinate nearly enough against Influenza (flu) infection, despite severe health and economic burden of influenza. Younger people are disproportionately responsible for transmission, but do not suffer severely from the flu. Thus, to achieve herd immunity, prosocial motivation needs to be a partial driver of vaccination decisions. Past research has not established the ...

While much of the reporting of swine flu in recent months has been of high quality, it has been accompanied by an unusual degree of error and confusion. Paradoxically, the journalists (and interviewees) to blame have often been those intent on correcting misapprehensions. " In the US, they've stopped trying to do individual case surveillance and they're focusing on testing healthy young adults ...

The interaction between viral HA (hemagglutinin) and oligosaccharide of the host plays an important role in the infection and transmission of avian and human flu viruses. Until now, this interaction has been classified by sialyl(α2-3) or sialyl(α2-6) linkage specificity of oligosaccharide moieties for avian or human virus, respectively. In the case of H5N1 and newly mutated flu viruses, classif...