With an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections growing, experts are warning grocery-store pharmacies that antibiotics giveaways are an unhealthy promotional gimmick. If grocery stores want to help customers and save them money during cold and flu season, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) says, they should offer free influenza vaccinations instead.Giant, Stop & Shop, and other grocery stores have recently begun offering ...
Workers age 50-64 who received influenza vaccine lost substantially fewer days of work and worked fewer days while ill, according to a new study in the Feb. 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. Given the concerns about antiviral drug resistance among this year's flu strains, the study highlights the importance of vaccination to prevent influenza.The burden of ...
New research out of WakeForestUniversityBaptistMedicalCenter suggests that Vicks VapoRub, the popular menthol compound used to relieve symptoms of cough and congestion, may instead create respiratory distress in infants and small children. The study appears in this month’s issue of Chest, the peer-reviewed journal of the AmericanCollege of Chest Physicians, and reports that the product may stimulate mucus production and airway ...
Individuals who get less than seven hours of sleep per night appear about three times as likely to develop respiratory illness following exposure to a cold virus as those who sleep eight hours or more, according to a report in the Jan. 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.Studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation impairs some immune function, according to ...
A new survey of approximately 4,000 American adults reveals that fewer than one-third (29.6 percent) have been vaccinated against the flu this season. The survey is the first of its kind to measure self-reported influenza vaccination rates during a current flu season. "This information is extremely relevant and timely considering influenza activity usually peaks in February and the complications can ...
Otitis media, more commonly known as an ear infection, is the most frequently diagnosed illness in children less than 15 years of age in the United States and is the primary cause for emergency room visits. More than 80 percent of children will experience at least one ear infection before ...
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes foodborne illness). The FDA advises ...
Vaccines are not just for children any more. That is the important and potentially life-saving message that Geisinger Health System pediatric gastroenterologist William Cochran, MD, vice chairman of the Janet Weis Children's Hospital, wants to deliver. And this is a message that comes from personal experience.“I am a physician, and ...
Swine flu reminded us how important washing our hands can be. Studies show that simple handwashing can decrease communicable gastrointestinal diseases by 50 percent and communicable respiratory diseases by 20 percent. Now, with schools at special risk for swine flu, a TelAvivUniversity researcher is bringing that message to educators and ...
The recent H1N1 influenza epidemic has raised many questions about how animal viruses move to human populations. One potential route is through veterinarians, who, according to a new report by University of Iowa College of Public Health researchers, are at markedly increased risk of infection with zoonotic pathogens -- the ...
Bacteria and viruses are the microscopic organisms – otherwise known as germs -- that are responsible for causing and transmitting illness and disease. These microbes are so small, that according to the American Society for Microbiology, if the smallest of all microbes was the size of a baseball, an average bacterium would then be the size of the pitcher's mound, and just one of the millions of cells that make up your body would be the size of the ballpark!
