Health

GlaxoSmithKline gets order for 60m swine flu vaccines

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GlaxoSmithKline, the UK’s largest pharmaceutical company, has received an order for 60m swine flu vaccines from the UK Government.

The company, which already manufactures one of the key anti-viral treatments for the virus, Relenza, has also received millions of orders from other European governments including France.

Don’t miss: Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918:
“Was homeopathy successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918?
Yes.
While the mortality rate of people treated with traditional medicine and drugs was 30 percent, those treated by homeopathic physicians had mortality rate of 1.05 percent.”

GSK, led by chief executive Andrew Witty, said it expects to manufacture a vaccine for the H1N1 strain as soon as a virus seed is made available by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The first doses are expected to be available four to six months later, subject to regulatory approval.

Alan Johnson, the UK Health Secretary, said: “This virus has the potential to become a pandemic and we can’t predict how serious that would be. We have an opportunity to secure vaccine in advance of a pandemic wave.”

Read moreGlaxoSmithKline gets order for 60m swine flu vaccines

Winnipeg researcher charged with smuggling Ebola material into U.S.

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A former researcher at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg is facing charges in the United States after allegedly trying to smuggle genetic material from the Ebola virus across the Manitoba-North Dakota border.

U.S. authorities allege Konan Michel Yao had 22 vials of the substance in the trunk of his car when he tried to cross the border on May 5. He is charged with smuggling merchandise, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 US.

Related video: Scientist attempts to smuggle 22 vials of Ebola into US

U.S. customs officers allegedly found the vials wrapped in aluminum foil inside a glove and packaged in a plastic bag, along with electrical wires.

In his affidavit, the 42-year-old researcher said he was hired by the Public Health Agency of Canada to work as a PhD fellow at the Winnipeg facility. Yao told officers he was working on a vaccine for the Ebola virus and HIV.

On Jan. 21, his last day at the lab, he said he stole 22 vials, which he described as research vectors, according to the affidavit.

Yao told officers he was taking the vials to his new job with the National Institutes of Health at the Biodefense Research Laboratory in Bethesda, Md., because he didn’t want to start from scratch in his research.

Read moreWinnipeg researcher charged with smuggling Ebola material into U.S.

Aspartame kills fire ants … and it also kills you

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From the article:

“Fire Ant Remedy – sprinkle a packet of aspartame (Equal or NutraSweet) on the mound. Ants will be gone the next day. Anyone eating or drinking anything containing this stuff is nuts!”

Organic Fire Ant Control

fire-ants

Common Name – Fire Ant, Imported Fire Ant, Red Imported Fire Ant

Scientific Name – Order – Hymenoptera, Family – Formicidae, Solenopsis invicta

Body Length – Adults are about 1/12″ to 1/3″

Identification – Four fire ant species are found in Texas. Three are native. The imported fire ant has just about wiped out the natives. The imported fire ant builds its mounds out in the open. Mounds have no visible openings. Stings are painful and sometimes produce a unique white pustule.

Read moreAspartame kills fire ants … and it also kills you

Merck made a “hit list” of doctors who were critical of the company, or of the drug

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“We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” said one email, from a Merck employee.

The danger of drugs … and data

A fascinating court case in Australia has been playing out around some people who had heart attacks after taking the Merck drug ­Vioxx. This medication turned out to increase the risk of heart attacks in people taking it, although that finding was arguably buried in their research, and Merck has paid out more than £2bn to 44,000 people in America – however, they deny any fault.

British users of the drug have had their application for legal aid rejected, incidentally: the health minister, Ivan Lewis, promised to help them, but documents obtained by the Guardian last week showed that within hours Merck launched an expensive lobbying effort that convinced the minister to back off.

This is a shame, because court cases can be tremendously revealing.

The first fun thing to emerge in the Australian case is email documentation showing staff at Merck made a “hit list” of doctors who were critical of the company, or of the drug. This list contained words such as “neutralise”, “neutralised” and “discredit” next to the names of various doctors.

“We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” said one email, from a Merck employee. Staff are also alleged to have used other tactics, such as trying to interfere with academic appointments, and dropping hints about how funding to institutions might dry up. Institutions might think about whether they wish to receive money from a company like that in future. Worse still, is the revelation that Merck paid the publisher Elsevier to produce a publication.

Read moreMerck made a “hit list” of doctors who were critical of the company, or of the drug

Transplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys

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A MACABRE traffic associated with poor countries in Asia and Latin America has sprung up for the first time in western Europe as the credit crunch reduces Spaniards to selling organs to “transplant tourists”.

Spanish “kidney for sale” advertisements have proliferated recently on the internet as people struggle to make ends meet in a country whose 17% unemployment rate is the highest in Europe.

Sergio, a 42-year-old welder and father of four, said he had received an offer of £20,000 from a German couple who needed his kidney for their five-year-old son. If tests showed them to be compatible, an operation would be performed in a “third country” since such transactions are illegal in Europe.

“Apparently, there’s a waiting list of at least five years for a kidney in Germany,” he told a television programme, “but in five years the kid will be dead.”

Just to advertise a human organ for sale is illegal in Spain and other sellers sounded nervous when contacted last week on the telephone by The Sunday Times.

Read moreTransplant tourism: Jobless Spaniards sell kidneys

Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

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During a flu epidemic in China 1000 still healthy people were treated with acupuncture, not one of this group that was treated with acupuncture got ill. (If I remember it correctly 97% of the population got ill.)

Important information:
– Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs
– Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

I just heard today that “Codex Alimentarius” is well on it’s way in the EU. This is the worst case scenario for alternative medicine and organic food. This would also be the end for homeopathy.

(NaturalNews) Homeopathy was successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918 and can provide answers to questions about the 2009 Swine Flu. Homeopathy can provide quick and inexpensive relief for symptoms of the flu.

A system of medicine based on the principles of “like cures like,” homeopathy uses plant, mineral and animal sources for the natural flu remedies. Homeopathy is based on ideas from ideas dating back to Egyptian medicine.

The term “homeopathy” was coined by the medical doctor and medical reformer, Samuel Hahnemann in the 1800s. Homeopathic remedies have been used to treat flu symptoms for two centuries.

Was homeopathy successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918?
Yes.
While the mortality rate of people treated with traditional medicine and drugs was 30 percent, those treated by homeopathic physicians had mortality rate of 1.05 percent.
Of the fifteen hundred cases reported at the Homeopathic Medical Society of the District of Columbia there were only fifteen deaths. Recoveries in the National Homeopathic Hospital were 100%. In Ohio, of 1,000 cases of influenza, Dr. T. A. McCann, MD, Dayton, Ohio reported NO DEATHS.

What homeopathic remedies were used to successfully treat the Spanish flu in 1918?
Gelsemium and Bryonia
According the Dr. Frank Wieland, MD, in Chicago, “(With) 8,000 workers we had only one death. Gelsemium was practically the only remedy used. We used no aspirin and no vaccines.”

Homeopathy was 98% successful in treating the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918?
Yes.
Ohio reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05% . In Connecticut, 6,602 cases were reported, with 55 deaths, less than 1%. Dr. Roberts, a physician on a troop ship during WWI, had 81 cases of flu on the way over to Europe. He reported, “All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment.

Read moreHomeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

Ron Paul introduces Parental Consent Act to protect families from mandatory ‘mental health screening’

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(NaturalNews) Rep. Ron Paul has introduced the Parental Consent Act to protect families from mandatory “mental health screening” — a thinly-veiled attempt by Big Pharma to drug expectant mothers and new moms with dangerous psychiatric drugs.

Here’s the full text of the speech given by Ron Paul in the House of Representatives, April 30, 2009:

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Parental Consent Act. This bill forbids Federal funds from being used for any universal or mandatory mental-health screening of students without the express, written, voluntary, informed consent of their parents or legal guardians. This bill protects the fundamental right of parents to direct and control the upbringing and education of their children.

The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has recommended that the federal and state governments work toward the implementation of a comprehensive system of mental-health screening for all Americans. The commission recommends that universal or mandatory mental-health screening first be implemented in public schools as a prelude to expanding it to the general public. However, neither the commission’s report nor any related mental-health screening proposal requires parental consent before a child is subjected to mental-health screening. Federally-funded universal or mandatory mental-health screening in schools without parental consent could lead to labeling more children as “ADD” or “hyperactive” and thus force more children to take psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin, against their parents’ wishes.

Already, too many children are suffering from being prescribed psychotropic drugs for nothing more than children’s typical rambunctious behavior. According to Medco Health Solutions, more than 2.2 million children are receiving more than one psychotropic drug at one time. In fact, according to Medico Trends, in 2003, total spending on psychiatric drugs for children exceeded spending on antibiotics or asthma medication.

Many children have suffered harmful side effects from using psychotropic drugs. Some of the possible side effects include mania, violence, dependence, and weight gain. Yet, parents are already being threatened with child abuse charges if they resist efforts to drug their children. Imagine how much easier it will be to drug children against their parents’ wishes if a federally-funded mental-health screener makes the recommendation.

Read moreRon Paul introduces Parental Consent Act to protect families from mandatory ‘mental health screening’

‘Green’ lightbulbs poison workers with mercury

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The light emitted from these poisonous, not eco-friendly lightbulbs is also very bad for your health. (LED  is ok and so were/are ordinary lightbulbs and that is why many people are stocking up on them.)

Related article: Revolt! Robbed of their right to buy traditional light bulbs, millions are clearing shelves of last supplies (Daily Mail)


Hundreds of factory staff are being made ill by mercury used in bulbs destined for the West

WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.

Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.

Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China – which supplies two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain – are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury.

Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light.

Mercury is recognised as a health hazard by authorities worldwide because its accumulation in the body can damage the nervous system, lungs and kidneys, posing a particular threat to babies in the womb and young children.

((Some vaccines contain a high dose of mercury.))

The risks are illustrated by guidance from the British government, which says that if a compact fluorescent lightbulb is broken in the home, the room should be cleared for 15 minutes because of the danger of inhaling mercury vapour.

Documents issued by the Chinese health ministry, instructions to doctors and occu-pational health propaganda all describe mercury poisoning in lighting factories as a growing public health concern.

“Pregnant women and mothers who are breastfeeding must not be allowed to work in a unit where mercury is present,” states one official rulebook.

Read more‘Green’ lightbulbs poison workers with mercury

Doctor questions value of vaccines

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The ongoing swine flu epidemic may have you wishing you had taken that flu shot this season, but some doctors say you may be better off without it.

“Since the 12th century, the most commonly used treatment for a cold or the flu is chicken soup,” said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, one of the guest speakers at the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association’s regional conference on Saturday at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill. “If you think we have anything more sophisticated now, think again.”

Related article: Swine flu pandemic? It feels like a phoney war (Guardian)

Eisenstein, who addressed conference attendees from Illinois through video conferencing, discussed the effectiveness of vaccines and their theorized connection to autism.

“The more people receive the flu vaccine, the more deaths there are,” said Eisenstein, citing various scientific studies. “Now that doesn’t mean that the two are related, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.”

Eisenstein didn’t limit his criticism to the flu shot.

“We perpetuate the myth that vaccines are the answer,” Eisenstein said.

Although vaccines have been credited with the virtual elimination of various diseases, Eisenstein said there’s no evidence to support vaccines were the cause.

Among the diseases that have virtually disappeared are measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and whooping cough and vaccines are not available to prevent any of them, Eisenstein said.

What has an impact, he said, is vitamin D and probiotics.

“We started using it at our practice this year and we got amazing results,” Eisenstein said. “I met doctor after doctor who have had the same results.”

Eisenstein said that patients who got a high dose of vitamin D for three days at the onset of a cold recovered much faster than patients who didn’t.

He cited a study in which vitamin D was administered to some of the 104 participants. About 24 of the participants in the group that had received no vitamin D reported having a cold during the winter months, Eisenstein said. Only two to three participants who had a received a lower dose of vitamin D reported having a cold and none of the participants who was given a higher dose of the vitamin became ill, he said.

Unlike vitamin A, which is readily obtained from a variety of foods, vitamin D is harder to come by, Eisenstein said.

That’s why he recommends that children get vitamin D supplements.

Exposure to the sun for 15 to 20 minutes every day, without sunblock, can give the body a much needed vitamin D boost, Eisenstein said.

“Vitamin D is clearly part of the answer, but I can tell you the complete answer is not vaccinations,” Eisenstein said.

Nancy Gualario, of Colts Neck, runs an advisory group for parents with special needs children.

“I like to come to these things and bring the information back to the parents,” Gualario said.

One of Gualario’s triplets was diagnosed with autism at age 2, she said.

“I’ve been doing some of these therapies and have had tremendous success,” she said.

Lisa McLaughlin also has a son with autism and came from Virginia to attend the conference, which concludes today.

“I read about some of these interventions online and I wanted to find out more,” McLaughlin said.

Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or [email protected]

By LAVINIA DeCASTRO • Courier-Post Staff • May 3, 2009

Source: Courier Post Online

What’s Missing From Every Media Story about H1N1 Influenza

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Don’t miss:
– DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines (CBS News):
Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
– Senator proposes free flu shots for all Americans (Reuters)
– Tamiflu drug made with cocktail of chemical ingredients, linked with bizarre behavior (Natural News)

(NaturalNews) If you read the stories on H1N1 influenza written by the mainstream media, you might incorrectly think there’s only one anti-viral drug in the world. It’s name is Tamiflu and it’s in short supply.

That’s astonishing to hear because the world is full of anti-viral medicine found in tens of thousands of different plants. Culinary herbs like thyme, sage and rosemary are anti-viral. Berries and sprouts are anti-viral. Garlic, ginger and onions are anti-viral. You can’t walk through a grocery store without walking past a hundred or more anti-viral medicines made by Mother Nature.

And yet how many does the mainstream media mention? Zero.

The totality of influenza preparedness is defined by the mainstream media as the number of doses of Tamiflu a nation has stockpiled. You see it in stories like this one at the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124…

Tamiflu comes from an herb

To live in a world that’s saturated with natural anti-viral medicine and then not even acknowledge it in the media is beyond bizarre. It’s Twilight Zone-like. It’s like we’ve been teleported to an alternate universe where anti-viral plants have disappeared… or at least everyone is pretending they have.

Where do you think Tamiflu comes from, by the way?

It’s extracted from the Traditional Chinese Medicine herb called Star Anise. It’s one of hundreds of different anti-viral herbs found in Chinese Medicine, not to even mention anti-viral herbs from South America, North America, Australia, Africa and other regions.

I find it downright comedic that Big Pharma and the world’s health authorities extract their “champion” anti-viral drug Tamiflu from a Chinese Medicine herb, and then they go out of their way to announce to people that herbs and natural remedies are useless against influenza. If that’s the case then why are they using herbs to make their own medicine?

Read moreWhat’s Missing From Every Media Story about H1N1 Influenza

Pesticides Shown to be Huge Parkinson’s Disease Risk

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(NaturalNews) According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, most researchers believe exposure to some kind of toxin or toxins in the environment triggers the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD) — the degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impairs motor skills (including walking), speech and other functions.

Pesticides have long been on the list of possible suspects as a PD-causing toxin. But a new study just published in the American Journal of Epidemiology by University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) scientists appears to be the “smoking gun” that places pesticides at the top of that list.

They found that exposure to a combination of two widely used pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson’s disease by an incredible 75 percent.

In previous animal studies and cell cultures, researchers have shown pesticides spark a neurodegenerative process that leads to Parkinson’s disease. The UCLA scientists, however, are the first to provide evidence for a similar process in humans.

They came up with their alarming results by analyzing an epidemiological study of Central Valley, California, residents. The region is one of the nation’s top food-growing regions and crops like potatoes, dry beans and tomatoes have long been routinely sprayed with fungicides, herbicides and pesticides.

Read morePesticides Shown to be Huge Parkinson’s Disease Risk

Flu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO

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Inspectors for swine flu walk through a terminal at Narita International Airport in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan on April 30, 2009. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News

May 1 (Bloomberg) — Flu reached 11 countries, as governments closed schools, planned for vaccine production and tapped emergency stockpiles of antiviral medicine.

Genetic tests have confirmed more than 331 people have the strain originally labeled swine flu, according to the World Health Organization’s Web site. Hundreds more cases are suspected in New York, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The WHO said thousands of samples from sick patients are backlogged for testing, and disease trackers are looking at whether an outbreak in Spain should trigger a declaration of a pandemic.

The Geneva-based health agency raised its six-tier alert to 5 on April 29 and said a move to the next and final level, for the world’s first influenza pandemic since 1968, may soon be made. The WHO urged countries to make final preparations against a disease that may sweep across the globe, preying on a world population that has no natural immunity to the new virus.

Read moreFlu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO

Dr. Russell Blaylock on 1976 Swine Flu and Current Outbreak

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Don’t miss:

– New flu combines pig, bird, human virus:
Unusually, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
– CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study (2004):
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. The goal is to assess the chances that such a “reassortant” virus will emerge and how dangerous it might be.”

and

– Baxter expects to soon begin work on flu vaccine:
 BOSTON, April 29 (Reuters) – Baxter International Inc said on Wednesday that it could have the first dose of its pandemic flu vaccine ready within 12 to 16 weeks of the start of the manufacturing process for the product.
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus:
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Source: Socioecohistory

Dr. Russell Blaylock, is a board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. An expert on nutrition and vaccines, he is also editor of the widely distributed Blaylock Wellness Report. He comments :

I was in the military during the first swine flu scare in 1976. At the time it became policy that all soldiers would be vaccinated for swine flu. As a medical officer I refused and almost faced a court martial, but the military didn’t want the bad publicity.Despite the assurance by all the experts in virology, including Dr. Sabin, the epidemic never materialized.

What did materialize were 500 cases of Gullian-Barre paralysis, including 25 deaths-not due to the swine flu itself, but as a direct result of the vaccine. At the time President Gerald Ford, on advice from the CDC, called for vaccination of the entire population of the United States.

Related video: Ron Paul on the Swine Flu Scare

  • While it is not unknown for pigs to become infected with the H5N1 virus, the result has always been a less-lethal and less-contagious virus than avian flu by itself. Why is this epidemic so obviously contagious?
  • How would genetic code from three continents find its way into a single strain in Mexico City?
  • Is this virus an escaped experiment from a project gone awry?
  • If man-made and not accidentally released, then who released it, and why?

Today, some 33 years later, we are hearing the same cries of alarm from a similar lineup of virology experts. The pharmaceutical companies are busy designing a vaccine for the swine flu in hope that this administration will make the vaccine mandatory before another vaccine-related disaster can ruin their party.

Read moreDr. Russell Blaylock on 1976 Swine Flu and Current Outbreak

WHO Warns of Imminent World-Wide Pandemic

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U.N. Agency Raises Alert Level to Phase 5, Citing Sustained Person-to-Person Transmission in the U.S. and Mexico


Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, with deputy Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, said Wednesday that “all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans.” (AP)

The World Health Organization warned countries Wednesday that a global pandemic from a new strain of flu appeared imminent, as the number of ill continued to grow and the first death outside Mexico was reported in Texas.

The United Nations public-health agency raised its global pandemic alert level to phase 5 from phase 4, indicating the A/H1N1 virus has caused outbreaks in at least two countries in one region. “All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans” and be on “high alert” for outbreaks, said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan issues a statement on the decision to raise the influenza pandemic alert to phase 5 and urging everyone to take the alert seriously.

Read moreWHO Warns of Imminent World-Wide Pandemic

Swine Flu Container Explodes on Train

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When a container holding swine flu exploded on a Swiss train on Monday, it could have led to a nightmare scenario. Luckily the virus was not the mutated swine flu that has killed around 150 people in Mexico and that has already spread to parts of Europe.

It has all the hallmarks of a disaster movie: A container filled with the swine flu virus explodes on a busy train. But that’s exactly the scenario that briefly caused the Swiss authorities some alarm on Monday evening. In the midst of global fears of a swine flu pandemic, a container with swine flu exploded on a train carrying over 60 people.


The Intercity train is seen in Lausanne station after it had been evacuated.

Luckily, however, it was not the mutated swine flu virus that has killed around 150 people in Mexico. The police quickly reassured the public that there was no danger of any infection.

According to the police, a lab technician with the Swiss National Center for Influenza in Geneva had travelled to Zurich to collect eight ampoules, five of which were filled with the H1N1 swine flu virus. The samples were to be used to develop a test for swine flu infections.

Read moreSwine Flu Container Explodes on Train

WHO Raises Pandemic Threat Level of Swine Flu

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Level four requires sustained human-to-human transmission able to cause what the WHO calls “community-level outbreaks.”

TORONTO, April 27 — The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert system to level four — sustained human-to-human transmission — in response to the swine flu outbreak in the U.S., Mexico, and at least two other countries.

The Geneva-based WHO made the change from level three — some human-to-human transmission — on the advice of an expert panel meeting today.

Read moreWHO Raises Pandemic Threat Level of Swine Flu

Swine flu prompts EU warning on travel to US and Mexico

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A South Korean disinfection truck sprays disinfectant against a possible swine flu outbreak at a port farm in Chuncheon, South Korea, Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Sang-hack)

MADRID (AP) – The top EU health official urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to parts of the United States and Mexico because of the swine flu virus, and Spanish health officials confirmed the first case outside North America.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.

Europeans urged to avoid Mexico and US as swine flu death toll exceeds 100 (Guardian):

• Spain confirms first European case as pandemic fears grow
• 17 possible cases of swine flu are under watch in the UK

World stock markets fell as investors worried that the deadly outbreak could go global and derail any global economic recovery. Airlines took the brunt of the selling.

The virus was suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with more than 1,600 cases suspected, while 40 cases – none fatal – were confirmed in the United States and six in Canada, the World Health Organization said.

“Today we’ve seen increased number of confirmed cases in several countries,” WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told The Associated Press. “WHO is very concerned about the number of cases that are appearing, and the fact that more and more cases are appearing in different countries.”

Read moreSwine flu prompts EU warning on travel to US and Mexico

U.S. set to issue travel warning to Mexico

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government plans to issue a travel warning later on Monday urging Americans to avoid all “nonessential” trips to Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu, a U.S. official said.

Swine flu has killed 103 people in Mexico and has spread to the United States. Spain has reported one case of the virus, the first to be confirmed in Europe.

“There will be a travel warning urging Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico because of the swine flu,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named as the warning has not yet been officially announced.

Read moreU.S. set to issue travel warning to Mexico

Swine Flu Pandemic Would Cost Trillions

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This afternoon, the WHO declaredthat the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. is a health emergency of international concern.

Reuters has put together a list of estimates of the economics costs that may be incurred if swine flu becomes a full out pandemic.

  • The World Bank estimated in 2008 that a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and result in a nearly 5 percent drop in world gross domestic product. The World Bank has estimated that more than 70 million people could die worldwide in a severe pandemic.
  • Australian independent think-tank Lowy Institute for International Policy estimated in 2006 that in the worst-case scenario, a flu pandemic could wipe $4.4 trillion off global economic output.
  • Two reports in the United States in 2005 estimated that a flu pandemic could cause a serious recession of the U.S. economy, with immediate costs of between $500 billion and $675 billion.
  • One report, from the Congressional Budget Office, said hospitals would have difficulty controlling infection and might become sources for spreading the illness.
  • A second report by New Jersey-based WBB Securities LLC predicted a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy.
  • SARS in 2003 disrupted travel, trade and the workplace and cost the Asia Pacific region $40 billion. It lasted for six months, killing 775 of the 8,000 people it infected in 25 countri
  • Between the autumn of 1918 and the spring of 1919, 548,452 people died of swine flu in the US.

John Carney
Apr. 25, 2009

Source: The Business Insider

CDC: New flu cannot be contained

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WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – An unusual new flu virus has spread widely and cannot be contained, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Saturday.

“It is clear that this is widespread. And that is why we have let you know that we cannot contain the spread of this virus,” the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters on a conference call.

The strain of swine flu is suspected of killing as many as 68 people in Mexico and infecting more than 1,000 more, including eight in the United States.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Patricia Zengerle)
25 Apr 2009 17:45:00 GMT

Source: Reuters

Scientists reverse symtoms of multiple sclerosis

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Scientists have been able to reverse the symptoms of multiple sclerosis using stem cells from patients’ own body fat.


The preliminary findings add to the growing evidence that stem cells could be used to treat multiple sclerosis Photo: AP

Some have been left free from seizures and better able to walk after the treatment.

Researchers said that the results suggest that the “very simple” injection of their own cells can stimulate the regrowth of tissue damaged by the progression of the disease.

The preliminary findings add to the growing evidence that stem cells could be used to treat the crippling neurological disease, which affects about 85,000 people in Britain.

Last year experts suggested that stem cell therapy could be a “cure” for MS within the next 15 years.

Patients’ symptoms were still improving up to a year after the treatment, the new study shows.

One, a 50-year-old man, who had suffered more than 600 painful seizures in the three years before treatment has not had a single one since the infusion of his own cells.

Another patient’s ability to walk, run and even cycle are still improving 10 months after the therapy.

Read moreScientists reverse symtoms of multiple sclerosis