A vaccine that protects against death and serious complications from different strains of influenza is a little closer to reality, U.S. researchers say.
Dr. Robert Belshe of Saint Louis University said drug companies now manufacture a different flu vaccine each year to match the strains of influenza researchers predict will circulate.
"However, novel vaccines, capable of inducing long-lasting, broad immunity against divergent strains, including potential pandemic viruses, are highly desirable," the lead author said in a statement.
In the study, 377 healthy adults received three injections of a universal influenza vaccine, known as Bivalent Influenza Peptide Conjugate Vaccine, over a six-month period. Belshe studied a vaccine made with proteins from strains of influenza viruses A and B.
Health & Wellness
Read just about any news report on swine flu deaths, and you'll come across a line that claims "36,000 people die each year from flu-related causes." It sounds authoritative. It's even a nice, round number. But where is this number coming from? And is it based on any actual science?
This statistic is being paraded around by almost everybody, as if to say that swine flu isn't so bad because regular flu kills so many people each year anyway. The truth is that the only standard by which the CDC and WHO are quoting deaths from swine flu is if they are confirmed deaths from a particular viral strain. To them, if a death has not been confirmed in their labs, it does not count as a death from that flu.
Got that? Only "confirmed" deaths count. And they must be confirmed in a laboratory using a rigorous method of comparing samples taken from the deceased with a known database of viral patterns.
This statistic is being paraded around by almost everybody, as if to say that swine flu isn't so bad because regular flu kills so many people each year anyway. The truth is that the only standard by which the CDC and WHO are quoting deaths from swine flu is if they are confirmed deaths from a particular viral strain. To them, if a death has not been confirmed in their labs, it does not count as a death from that flu.
Got that? Only "confirmed" deaths count. And they must be confirmed in a laboratory using a rigorous method of comparing samples taken from the deceased with a known database of viral patterns.
The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that's fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains.
The findings may resolve some uncertainty about the nature of the virus, but much is still unknown about its origins and effects.
The findings may resolve some uncertainty about the nature of the virus, but much is still unknown about its origins and effects.
Are globalist fear-mongers driving the media to panic the public into universal healthcare solutions? Or federally-mandated vaccinations?
By definition, a "pandemic" is an epidemic that is geographically widespread. Fear-mongers are always careful to add the innuendo that millions of people could and probably will die, as in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed between 20 and 100 million people worldwide.
Excuse me, but how does the death of even a few hundred equate to 20 million?
Mexico, not the usual Southeast Asia, is the origin of the latest flu outbreak. It has spread in limited numbers to several continents. Almost all of the deaths, limited as they are, are in Mexico. The ratio of deaths to infections is very small.
Again, how does this outbreak even remotely qualify as a pandemic? Answer: It does not!
By definition, a "pandemic" is an epidemic that is geographically widespread. Fear-mongers are always careful to add the innuendo that millions of people could and probably will die, as in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed between 20 and 100 million people worldwide.
Excuse me, but how does the death of even a few hundred equate to 20 million?
Mexico, not the usual Southeast Asia, is the origin of the latest flu outbreak. It has spread in limited numbers to several continents. Almost all of the deaths, limited as they are, are in Mexico. The ratio of deaths to infections is very small.
Again, how does this outbreak even remotely qualify as a pandemic? Answer: It does not!
Last week, when what is now called a "swine flu" was first reported to be infecting and killing some people in Mexico, health officials noted it was a strain of flu never before seen. In fact, it is technically incorrect to call this simply a "swine" flu. Analyses showed it's a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Moreover, it is genetically different from the fully human H1N1 seasonal influenza virus that has been circulating globally for the past few years. Bottom line: the new flu virus contains DNA from avian, swine viruses (including elements from European and Asian viruses) and human viruses.
So did this curious mixture just develop naturally, out of the blue? Is it the result of inhumane farming practices, as the Humane Society of the United States (http://www.hsus.org) has suggested, that exposes immune-compromised pigs to all sorts of animal and human feces?
Well, maybe. But let's go back and look at the facts to see if any other scenario could be possible.
So did this curious mixture just develop naturally, out of the blue? Is it the result of inhumane farming practices, as the Humane Society of the United States (http://www.hsus.org) has suggested, that exposes immune-compromised pigs to all sorts of animal and human feces?
Well, maybe. But let's go back and look at the facts to see if any other scenario could be possible.
© Unknown
Nice swine
Nice swine
Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?
Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.
However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.
And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.
More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu!
When it comes to infectious disease, preparedness is good. But ill-informed preparedness is a waste of time and resources, and there's a lot of ill-informed preparedness going on right now with the swine flu.
Case in point: All those people buying N95 masks (respirators).
They think wearing a mask protects them from swine flu. The mainstream media perpetuates the myth, broadcasting images of people wearing the masks, all while talking about people "protecting themselves" from swine flu. If it wasn't a potentially life-and-death situation, it would all be quite hilarious.
Case in point: All those people buying N95 masks (respirators).
They think wearing a mask protects them from swine flu. The mainstream media perpetuates the myth, broadcasting images of people wearing the masks, all while talking about people "protecting themselves" from swine flu. If it wasn't a potentially life-and-death situation, it would all be quite hilarious.
Experts who treat dizziness estimate that about 20 percent of all dizziness is due to loose crystals - or ear rocks - in the inner ear.
The condition, known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV, is usually treated with a series of simple head movements aimed at putting dislodged ear rocks back where they came from so they can be cleared away by the immune system. BPPV can be triggered by a head injury or a virus. The condition is more common in older adults.
Tiny 'Ear Rocks' Keep Us Balanced
Within the inner ear, there's a little pouch called the utricle that contains about 1,000 little pebbles made of calcium carbonate.
The tiny rocks serve an important purpose: They stimulate nerve cells when we move our heads - and send signals to our brain that guide our sense of up and down.
The condition, known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV, is usually treated with a series of simple head movements aimed at putting dislodged ear rocks back where they came from so they can be cleared away by the immune system. BPPV can be triggered by a head injury or a virus. The condition is more common in older adults.
Tiny 'Ear Rocks' Keep Us Balanced
Within the inner ear, there's a little pouch called the utricle that contains about 1,000 little pebbles made of calcium carbonate.
The tiny rocks serve an important purpose: They stimulate nerve cells when we move our heads - and send signals to our brain that guide our sense of up and down.
© REUTERS/National Museum of Health and Medicine/Armed Forces Institute of Pathology/Handout
An emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, for soldiers sickened by the 1918 flu.
An emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, for soldiers sickened by the 1918 flu.
Strep infections and not the flu virus itself may have killed most people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which suggests some of the most dire predictions about a new pandemic may be exaggerated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
The findings suggest that amassing antibiotics to fight bacterial infections may be at least as important as stockpiling antiviral drugs to battle flu, they said.
Keith Klugman of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues looked at what information is available about the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people globally in the space of about 18 months.
Some research has shown that on average it took a week to 11 days for people to die -- which fits in more with the known pattern of a bacterial infection than a viral infection, Klugman's group wrote in a letter to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Health of Canada's food crops lies in the balance as Monsanto prepares an assault on farmers to promote it Roundup poison.
Comment: Another take on this potentially pandemic virus is the following: Globally pandemic flu virus, or not (it really is unknown at this stage?), it should be common sense to look after ourselves as best we can, and for those we love. This includes ridding ourselves of the toxins that we accumulate from our diets and living/working environments, and helping to boost our under-pressure immune systems.
Please listen to Sott's latest Podcast entitled 'Toxic World, Toxic Bodies' - Flu, or no global flu... this information is a must and should not be missed. Large Download (right click to save)
Smaller Download (right click to save)