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	<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Flu &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Flu &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>WHO: New Flu Passes More Easily from Bird to Human</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/24/who-new-flu-passes-more-easily-from-bird-to-human/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/24/who-new-flu-passes-more-easily-from-bird-to-human/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:51:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / GILLIAN WONG</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=85221</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(BEIJING) &#8212; A new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month is one of the &#8220;most lethal&#8221; flu viruses so far, worrying health officials because it can jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. Scientists are watching the virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic but say there is little evidence so far that it can spread easily from human to human. (MORE: Could Animals Other Than Birds Harbor the Virus?) WHO&#8217;s top influenza expert, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told reporters at a briefing in Beijing that people seem to catch the H7N9 virus from birds more easily than the H5N1 strain that began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003. The H5N1 strain has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after contact with infected fowl. Health experts are concerned about H7N9&#8242;s ability to jump to humans, and about the strain&#8217;s capacity to infect birds without causing noticeable symptoms, which makes it difficult to monitor its spread. &#8220;This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far,&#8221; Fukuda said. But he added that experts are still trying to understand the virus, and that there might be a large number of mild infections that are going undetected. The H7N9 bird flu virus has infected more than 100 people in China, seriously sickening most of them and killing more than 20, mostly near the eastern coast around Shanghai. Taiwan on Wednesday confirmed its first case, a 53-year-old man who became sick after returning from a visit to the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. In comparison, the earlier bird flu strain, H5N1, is known to kill up to 60 of every 100 people it infects. Wednesday&#8217;s briefing came at the end of a weeklong joint investigation by WHO and Chinese authorities in Beijing and Shanghai. Experts said they still aren&#8217;t sure how people are getting infected but said evidence points to infections at live poultry<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=85221&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/166292153.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">33 H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Confirmed In China</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>H7N9 Bird Flu: Could Animals Other Than Birds Harbor the Virus?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/19/h7n9-bird-flu-could-animals-other-than-birds-harbor-the-virus/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/19/h7n9-bird-flu-could-animals-other-than-birds-harbor-the-virus/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:45:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[avian flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[avian influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[h7n9]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pandemic flu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=84933</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers have more questions than answers about the latest bird flu circulating in China, including whether birds are the only reservoir for the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 17 people in China have died of H7N9 infection, and there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission of the flu virus. However, while experts assume that those infected were exposed when they came in contact with sick birds, most likely poultry, Chinese health officials said that 40% of the 82 people who had fallen ill so far had not reported any contact with live poultry. Why? Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology-and-prevention branch in the influenza division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says that percentage may change, as more information becomes available and patients recall even casual contact they might have had with poultry. A more worrisome possibility, expressed by some experts in China, who believe a young boy may have infected his brother, is that H7N9 may actually be passing from person to person. So far, there is no evidence of what experts call sustained human transmission, but investigators are looking into how the virus emerged in the family members. Influenza experts are also considering the chance that H7N9, a new influenza virus that has never been seen in people before, may have another, non-avian-animal home. (MORE: Bird Flu Is Back in China, but This Time It&#8217;s H7N9) That possibility is bolstered by the fact that unlike previous H7 viruses, which are primarily found in birds, H7N9 appears to be adept at infecting mammals. “This virus is different from other H7 viruses isolated before from birds,” says Bresee. “There are some mutations in this virus that seem to make it better adapted to infecting mammalian hosts compared to normal avian viruses.” Once it does infect a human host, it also causes relatively severe disease, which is unusual for an avian-flu strain. That’s worrisome since most people will not have built-in immunity against bird-flu strains since we aren’t likely to be infected with them.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=84933&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/166292153.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">33 H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Confirmed In China</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>How Social Media in China Is Revealing More Cases of Bird Flu</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/03/bird-flu-cover-up-chinese-social-media-out-possible-cases-of-deadly-disease/#comments</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/03/bird-flu-cover-up-chinese-social-media-out-possible-cases-of-deadly-disease/#comments#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:30:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Hannah Beech</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infectious Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[censoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[h7n9]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weibo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=83792</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the wake of emerging H7N9 cases in China, citizens are taking to the country&#8217;s social media service, Weibo, to post the latest tallies of individuals infected with the new bird flu strain. The deletion of some of the posts is raising skepticism over whether China is censoring the actual number of cases, which seem to be on the rise. Read more about the suspicion here in TIME&#8217;s World section.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=83792&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/h5n1-bird-flu.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">h5n1 bird flu</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timeadmin</media:title>
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		<title>Bird Flu Is Back in China, but This Time It&#8217;s H7N9</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/02/bird-flu-is-back-in-china-but-this-time-its-h7n9/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/02/bird-flu-is-back-in-china-but-this-time-its-h7n9/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:30:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu outbreaks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu pandemic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[h7n9]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=83647</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Flu season may be coming to an end in some parts of the world, but a new influenza virus harbored by birds may be starting its global assault. On Tuesday, China reported four more cases of infection with the H7N9 influenza virus, a type of bird flu, in the eastern Jiangsu province. These cases follow the first three reports of the disease on Sunday, from Shanghai and Anhui province. The two Shanghai patients have died, and the Anhui patient is in critical condition. Researchers are testing the flu strains isolated from the patients, and so far the World Health Organization (WHO) says the cases do not appear to be connected. According to Xinhua, 167 people have been in contact with the four most recently infected patients, but none of these individuals show symptoms of respiratory problems or fever, as the patients did when they fell ill. And so far, the WHO says there is no indication of human-to-human transmission. Before these cases, scientists said there were no reports of people being infected with H7N9, a less virulent form of bird flu, so investigators are still tracing the patients&#8217; whereabouts to figure out how they were infected. All the infected individuals were sick with fevers and other flulike symptoms before being diagnosed, and only one of the patients appears to have been in direct contact with birds. (MORE: Scientists Push to Resume Research on Virulent Man-Made Flu Virus) The reports of new cases, which first bubbled up from the social-media network in China, could mean that the Chinese authorities are getting a better handle on the virus. &#8220;When you don&#8217;t look, you don&#8217;t find them, but when you look, you&#8217;ll find,&#8221; Dr. Ray Yip, a public-health expert who heads the Bill &#38; Melinda Gates Foundation in China, told the Associated Press. &#8220;A lot of people get severe respiratory conditions, pneumonias, so you usually don&#8217;t test them. Now all of a sudden you get this new reported strain of flu and so people are going to submit more samples to test, [so] you&#8217;re more likely<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=83647&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/90339681.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Study Finds Small Risk Of Guillain-Barre Syndrome From H1N1 Vaccine</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/13/study-finds-small-risk-of-guillain-barre-syndrome-from-h1n1-vaccine/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/13/study-finds-small-risk-of-guillain-barre-syndrome-from-h1n1-vaccine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:45:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu vaccine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guillain-barre syndrome]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H1N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[h1n1 vaccine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pandemic flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paralysis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaccination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaccine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=82130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The link between the H1N1 vaccine and Guillain-Barré first emerged in 1976, during the U.S.&#8217;s last urgent national campaign to immunize citizens against a fast-acting flu. At that time, the risk of the disease, which is a rare but serious immune disorder in which the body&#8217;s own immune cells start to attack nerves, leading to muscle weakness, paralysis and even death, was concerning enough that the vaccination program was halted. H1N1 immunization was called for again in 2009, however, when threat of a related pandemic strain of influenza against which most of the population wasn&#8217;t immunized, called for a massive vaccination campaign to avoid a pandemic. Now the latest study on adverse events reported from those vaccinations, published in the Lancet, shows that the risk of Guillain-Barré remained. The data included adverse events reported to six different systems, including the core vaccine safety datalink, new surveillance systems established by Medicare and the U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, as well as a monitoring system specifically created to track adverse events related to the 2009 H1N1 immunization campaign. Researchers from the National Vaccine Program Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services analyzed the data from 23 million people who were vaccinated as part of that effort and found 61 million cases of H1N1, 274,000 hospitalizations and 12,470 deaths related to the pandemic flu. Of those who were immunized, 77 developed Guillain-Barré, some as long as 91 days after getting their shot. Since the disorder normally affects about one person in 100,000, this results in an additional 1.6 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per one million people vaccinated — still a small risk. (SPECIAL: What You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine) This rate is similar to that found in other studies that have studied the link between the vaccine and the autoimmune disorder. Last summer, a group of scientists in Quebec analyzed the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome in millions of people given the vaccine in Canada between 2009 and 2010 and reported 83 confirmed cases of Guillain-Barré, including 25 cases<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=82130&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/97612704.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Pregnant Women Should Get Flu Shots</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/why-pregnant-women-should-get-flu-shots/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/why-pregnant-women-should-get-flu-shots/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Siobhan Dolan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnancy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vaccines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=80559</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s not too late to get a flu shot – especially if you’re pregnant, say experts at the March of Dimes. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging all Americans to get an influenza vaccine, and pregnant women should be at the front of that line. The flu vaccine is safe during pregnancy and can protect both mother and baby from the flu and its possible consequences. Pregnant women are at higher risk of complications from flu because pregnancy takes a toll on their respiratory and immune systems. Pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalized with flu and influenza infections can increase their risk of preterm labor and delivery. Health complications from influenza, such as pneumonia, can be serious and even deadly. Newborns are also at an increased risk of severe illness and even death from the flu.  Nationwide, 64 child deaths have been reported this flu season. (MORE: Pregnant Moms’ Flu Linked to Higher Risk of Autism Among Children) Studies have shown, however, that if mothers are vaccinated during pregnancy their newborns are less likely to become ill with the flu during their first six months. It’s critical for a newborn to have this passive immunity from mom during those early months since it’s not recommended that babies under six months receive a flu shot. Concerns about flu shots having a negative impact on developing babies in utero also seem to be unfounded. Studies that included thousands of pregnant women who received the seasonal flu vaccine found that their babies did not have a higher risk of being born too soon or developing a birth defect when compared with babies born to women who did not get immunized. In fact, researchers found that women who were vaccinated were less likely to suffer a stillbirth compared to those who did not get vaccinated. Based on this evidence, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the March of Dimes, and the CDC all urge pregnant women to get their flu shots to avoid getting infected,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=80559&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/149320960.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">149320960</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<title>New Strain of Norovirus Is Circulating in the U.S.</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/25/new-strain-of-norovirus-is-circulating-in-the-u-s/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/25/new-strain-of-norovirus-is-circulating-in-the-u-s/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infectious Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CDC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food posioning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GII.4]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GII.4 Sydney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new strain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[norovirus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stomach flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vomiting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78793</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Piggybacking off this year&#8217;s influenza epidemic, a new strain of the highly contagious norovirus has reached the U.S. from Australia. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that the new norovirus strain, called GII.4 Sydney, is currently the leading cause of norovirus outbreaks in the U.S. and accounted for 58% of cases of the infection in December. Often confused with the stomach flu because of its contemporaneous circulation with influenza during winter months, norovirus causes 21 million cases of illness, often involving severe vomiting and diarrhea; 70,000 hospitalizations each year in the U.S.; and 800 deaths. While influenza is a respiratory illness, norovirus, which comes in five forms, favors the stomach and intestinal tract, causing inflammation of tissues that leads to pain, nausea, as well as diarrhea and vomiting. According to the CDC, about 51% of the cases in the U.S. were caused by person-to-person transmission and 20% resulted from contaminated food. Most infections occur in places where large numbers of people are gathered, such as schools, nursing homes and cruise ships, where the virus can pass easily from host to host. (MORE: Norovirus Outbreak: Why You Shouldn’t Keep Your Grocery Bag in the Bathroom) The new strain of norovirus was first identified in March 2012 in Australia and has since sickened people on several continents. Historically, the GII strains have caused more severe illness than other versions of the virus, but officials at the CDC says it is too early in the season to determine if GII.4 Sydney is infecting people at higher rates than in previous years. The norovirus season runs from November through March and cases typically peak in January. &#8220;Although most of the time you recover after 24 or 48 hours, [norovirus] is a reason for people to come to the emergency room and is even responsible for a small number of death each year. It’s not a completely innocuous virus and can certainly ruin a vacation,&#8221; says Dr. John Treanor, chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at the University<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78793&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Infectious Disease</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/infectious-disease/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/128541507.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Can Influenza Sorbet Relieve Your Flu Symptoms?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/25/can-influenza-sorbet-relieve-your-flu-symptoms/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/25/can-influenza-sorbet-relieve-your-flu-symptoms/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:15:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Olivia B. Waxman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home remedies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jeni's influenza sorbet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maker's Mark]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78707</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Forget chicken soup or hot tea. There is a new batch of home flu remedies — and they don&#8217;t skimp on the alcohol. When Jeni Britton Bauer, owner of Jeni&#8217;s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio, was young, getting a cold or the flu meant her mother and grandmother would mix up a cocktail of their own cure-all for the winter ills — a syrup of honey, lemon juice and whiskey. She&#8217;d get a spoonful, or get to drink it in a hot lemonade before bed. So in 2004, as those around her sniffled and sneezed their way through a moderately severe flu season, Bauer thought she could help ease some of the suffering by adding her own twist to the family recipe, turning the syrup into a sorbet so the coldness would add a soothing touch as well. The frozen treat contains orange and lemon juices, honey, &#8220;ginger, cayenne and liquid pectin — because it makes it into a cough drop that lubricates your throat,&#8221; Bauer says. (MORE: Flu Vaccine is 62% Effective, Say Health Officials) But the key ingredient is Maker&#8217;s Mark. &#8220;The whiskey relaxes you,&#8221; she says. And there&#8217;s a lot of it. &#8220;Enough that it barely stays frozen.&#8221; When she debuted the treat in 2004, she also rolled out a kid-friendly version, using a cherry concentrate from a Michigan farm instead of bourbon. Jeni&#8217;s Influenza Rx Sorbet weathered the H1N1 (&#8220;swine flu&#8221;) scare, and with this year&#8217;s flu at epidemic levels, is now flying off shelves at $12 a pint in Jeni&#8217;s ten Ohio stores, forcing her team to extend production hours to meet the growing number of online orders. But can a sorbet beat the common cold or the flu? Doctors tell TIME that the ingredients don&#8217;t have any anti-viral properties, meaning they aren&#8217;t proven to reverse the course of the illness, or prevent you from getting infected. But they may give you temporary relief of some symptoms. Here&#8217;s what experts say about the cocktail&#8217;s potential benefits: Orange and Lemon Juice. Both juices are high<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78707&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/influenza_jenisorbet.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">timeolivia</media:title>
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		<title>Scientists Push to Resume Research On Virulent Man-Made Flu Virus</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/23/scientists-push-to-resume-research-on-virulent-man-made-flu-virus/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/23/scientists-push-to-resume-research-on-virulent-man-made-flu-virus/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[avian influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1 pandemic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[moratorium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ron fouchier]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers who voluntarily stopped work on a potent strain of influenza they created in the lab are hoping to end the moratorium on their studies. In January 2012, scientists agreed to halt their research on the dangerous H5N1 avian flu&#8211;or bird flu virus&#8211;that they had manipulated to become more easily transmissible from person to person. H5N1 became known as avian influenza because it thrives in fowl populations, including ducks and migrating geese, and while it caused severe illness in people, the virus was less adept at jumping between human hosts, and presumably, among other mammals as well. Since 1997, when the virus was identified in Hong Kong, about 600 people have been infected and nearly 60% have died. But two groups of scientists, one led by Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and another led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at University of Wisconsin, independently managed to create strains of H5N1 in their labs that could pass between ferrets, marking the first time that a version of the avian flu could easily spread among mammals. The potential for a pandemic with H5N1, which, to date, may have a 50% mortality rate among those infected, was concerning enough to biosafety officials that the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) requested that scientific journals not publish the details of how the virulent strains of H5N1 were made. The papers, the officials feared, could serve as a how-to guide for human catastrophe if the results were used by bioterrorists. (MORE: H5N1: Bird Flu Pandemic May Be Closer than Thought, Study Finds) The move by the NSABB was unprecedented, and outraged many in the scientific community, who felt politics and policy were interfering with the pursuit of science. However, the researchers agreed to a voluntary pause on their research so they could better explain the public health benefits of their work, as well as provide leaders in both the scientific and political communities time to determine the best way to proceed with and manage research that could have such dual purposes. In the meantime, the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78540&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/128579791.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Achoo, It&#8217;s You! Facebook App Points the Finger at Flu Spreaders</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/22/achoo-its-you-facebook-app-points-the-finger-at-flu-spreaders/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/22/achoo-its-you-facebook-app-points-the-finger-at-flu-spreaders/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu vaccine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78446</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You&#8217;ve gotten your flu vaccine and you wash your hands regularly. But you still need protection from those flu-ridden friends on your social network. If you are looking for the latest in flu prevention, don&#8217;t head to the pharmacy. The healthcare product company Help Remedies says it has a powerful tool for keeping the flu at bay. It&#8217;s called “Help I Have The Flu,”, a Facebook app that scans through your Facebook page to identify who among your social network is most likely to give you the flu. That way, you can stop hanging out with them before it&#8217;s too late. (MORE: Rising Number of Flu Cases Raises Public-Health Concern) Don&#8217;t worry. It&#8217;s not based on such privacy-invading scientific strategies as delving into your friends&#8217; medical or vaccination records. Instead, the app looks for friends&#8217; comments and statuses relating to flu activity, like “coughing&#8221; and “sneezing” and even tracks trends such as late night posts, since lack of sleep is considered a risk factor for getting sick. The result? A list of risky individuals from whom you can steer clear. Or, perhaps just as important, blame if you come down with a bug. After all, nothing is more comforting than being empowered to point fingers. Thankfully, when I used the app none of my friends had serious flu activity on their newsfeeds, though I&#8217;m convinced some are just being discrete about it. However, another friend I recruited as a guinea pig wasn’t so lucky. Four people popped up in her potential illness scan. The app informed us that one friend recently “mentioned medicine,” one “mentioned ill,” one lived within “sneezing distance,” and one “had multiple late night posts. (MORE: Flu Vaccine is 62% Effective, Say Health Officials) The app also allows you to send a snarky message to anyone in your social network with questionable flu activity, to let them know you plan to ignore them for the time being. Part of the message reads: Hello, don’t take it personally (well, actually do) but I’m placing you in a quarantine…So<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78446&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-01-21 at 7.11.25 PM</media:title>
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		<title>Sneezing Etiquette: Why Don&#8217;t Adults Sneeze the Proper Way?</title>
		<link>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/15/flu-prevention-why-are-adults-still-sneezing-into-their-hands/?iid=op-main-lead</link>
		<comments>http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/15/flu-prevention-why-are-adults-still-sneezing-into-their-hands/?iid=op-main-lead#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erika Christakis</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=78009</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kids don’t cough or sneeze into their hands anymore, so why haven&#8217;t American adults caught on? Read more on our companion blog Ideas.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=78009&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/159358784.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">healthlandstaff</media:title>
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		<title>Flu Vaccine is 62% Effective, Say Health Officials</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/flu-vaccine-is-62-effective-say-health-officials/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/flu-vaccine-is-62-effective-say-health-officials/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:26:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=77771</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Based on early data from flu sufferers, health officials say the current influenza vaccine is 62% effective in reducing symptoms of the disease. That means that those who are vaccinated are 62% less likely to need to see a doctor for their illness compared to those who are not vaccinated. While that’s a relatively low rate compared to those for childhood vaccines, which hover closer to 90% effectiveness and above, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Thomas Frieden said Friday that 62% is “in line with what we expect” with influenza shots, which have to be reformulated every year from best guesses about which virus strains are likely to be circulating during the winter. “The pick of the strains [in the current vaccine] is as good as it could have been this year,” Frieden told reporters during a teleconference. “Sixty two percent is far less than we wish it would be, but it’s [that] the glass is 62% full, or we have a 62% reduction in the number of people who would be going to the doctor if they hadn’t been vaccinated. So it’s certainly well worth the effort.” VIDEO: One More Reason to Get the Flu Shot: Your Heart The estimate, released by the CDC and published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), is based on a preliminary analysis of illness and vaccination rates among 1,155 children and adults over the month of December at five study sites. Because flu season extends through April, that percentage could change, but flu shots in previous seasons have ranged from being 50% to 70% effective in keeping people out of the doctor’s office. Vaccination, Frieden, said, is still the best protection against influenza, especially since cases will continue to climb, as the wave of illness moves from the south and southeastern parts of the country, where it typically begins each season, westward. Spot shortages of flu vaccines have been reported, but not to the extent that entire regions are without vaccines. “It may be that you have<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=77771&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/ca08412.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<title>Rising Number of Flu Cases Raises Public-Health Concern</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/rising-number-of-flu-cases-raise-public-health-concern/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/rising-number-of-flu-cases-raise-public-health-concern/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=77702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Boston, hospitals are restricting visitors to protect patients with weakened immune systems; some are barring children under 14 years altogether from traipsing through their wards. And hospital personnel are carefully monitoring folks flowing in through their lobbies for signs of sneezing, coughing or fever. The hospitals are wise to take such care because Boston is experiencing a flu crisis. At Massachusetts General Hospital, 536 people have been treated for influenza so far this season, 97 in the past week alone. Last year just 29 people were admitted for stays of one night or more for flu-related illnesses; this year 167 have already been hospitalized. The current outbreak led the city’s mayor to declare a public-health emergency when the confirmed influenza caseload hit 700, compared with last year’s tally of 70. The announcement allowed the release of thousands of free vaccines for those who haven’t been immunized and an admonition that people who are sick should stay home to prevent spreading the virus. (MORE: Pregnant Moms&#8217; Flu Linked to Higher Risk of Autism Among Children) And Boston isn’t the only city confronting rising cases. Hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul are opening up extra units to house patients felled by flu. Forty-one states report widespread influenza, and according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 3 in 10,000 adults over age 65 have been hospitalized for influenza, compared with 1 in 100,000 at the same time last year. The elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable to serious complications. As the flu season continues to build, public-health officials are bracing for what could be the most severe outbreak in recent years. “Certainly last year was mild, and the year before that was relatively mild,” says Dr. Michael Jhung, medical officer in the influenza division at the CDC. “But the number we are at right now, 5.6% [the proportion of people seeing their doctor for flu-related symptoms] compared to last year’s peak of 2.2% tells you this year is more severe than last year for sure.” (VIDEO: One More Reason to Get the Flu Shot: Your Heart)<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=77702&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/wp_hl_flu_0111.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Flu</media:title>
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		<title>Pregnant Moms&#8217; Flu Linked to Higher Risk of Autism Among Children</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/12/pregnant-moms-flu-linked-to-higher-risk-of-autism-among-children/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/12/pregnant-moms-flu-linked-to-higher-risk-of-autism-among-children/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bonnie Rochman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Autism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Childhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73596</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Expectant moms may have one more reason to get a flu shot. According to the latest research on flu vaccination during pregnancy, following current recommendations for influenza shots may help to lower rates of autism. In research published in the journal Pediatrics, scientists studied the rates of developmental disorders like autism among nearly 97,000 children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2003. The children&#8217;s mothers answered questions about infections they might have had during pregnancy — colds, sinus infections and urinary tract infections, among others. They also reported whether they’d suffered from the flu or had fevers that lasted more than seven days before they gave birth. When the researchers compared the mothers&#8217; answers to the registry of developmental disorders, they found that moms who fought the flu while expecting had children with double the risk of being diagnosed with autism before their third birthday. Mothers who endured flu-based fevers for seven days or more had triple the likelihood of having kids with autism, and those mothers also had a 60% greater chance of having a child diagnosed with developmental difficulties falling into the more expansive category of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition, moms who used antibiotics while pregnant had children with a small increased risk of autism. Infections and antibiotic use can also contribute to low birth weight babies, another risk factor for developmental abnormalities; in a 2011 study, researchers concluded that premature babies who weigh less than 4.5 pounds are five times as likely to be diagnosed with an ASD. Influenza seemed to be the only infection linked to a higher risk of autism among these mothers&#8217; children; other common infections such as colds and sinus infections during pregnancy did not seem to increase autism among their offspring. While it&#8217;s not clear why influenza is so potentially harmful to early development, experts suspect that the fevers associated with flu might be largely responsible, since previous studies show that periods of high fever during pregnancy are associated with birth defects. So bringing down rising body temperatures while expecting<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73596&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Autism</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/autism/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/flu1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">flu</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">brochman</media:title>
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		<title>Does The Flu Shot Curb Heart Disease?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/does-the-flu-shot-curb-heart-disease/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/does-the-flu-shot-curb-heart-disease/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=72656</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s something to consider if you haven&#8217;t gotten your flu shot: people who are vaccinated may have a lower risk of heart disease. In two separate studies presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, researchers say the influenza vaccine may reduce the risk of heart related disease and death by up to 50%. That supports current recommendations that people at high risk for flu-related complications, including people with heart disease, get vaccinated. MORE: H1N1 Vaccines Linked to Guillain-Barre Syndrome But Not Birth Defects In one of the studies, lead study author Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiologist at Women&#8217;s College Hospital and the University of Toronto and his research team reviewed four studies involving flu vaccines and heart health. The studies included 3,227 participants, half of whom had confirmed heart disease. Half of the participants received the influenza vaccine and half were innoculated with a placebo. (MORE: Tamiflu Made My Kid Hallucinate. I Think the Flu is Preferable to Delirium) After one year, those who received the flu vaccine had a 50% reduced risk of suffering major cardiac events like heart attack and stroke and a 40% reduced risk of heart-related death. &#8220;These findings support current guideline recommendations that patienst with heart disease or risk factors for heart disease should get an annual flu shot, with now an additional potential benefit,&#8221; says Dr. Udell, who says he hopes the findings encourage more people to get immunized. &#8220;If reproducible, these findings suggest an annual flu vaccine with minimal risk may have a dramatic ability to reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease.  Hopefully this is one additional reason to get your flu shot this year.&#8221; In the second study, cardiologists from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto looked at the role of flu vaccines among patients with implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD), battery-operated implants that electrically stimulate the heart for those whose organs are failing. Traditionally, doctors have known that patients tend to need more ICD shocks during flu season, so study author Dr. Ramanan Kumareswaran wanted to investigate ways of reducing this need to rely on the device. (MORE: Study: Why Flu Hits Some<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=72656&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/85997773.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Trying to Avoid a Cold? Skip the Vitamin D Supplements</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/03/trying-to-avoid-a-cold-skip-the-vitamin-d-supplements/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/03/trying-to-avoid-a-cold-skip-the-vitamin-d-supplements/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:25:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infectious Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prevention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supplements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cold remedies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[colds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sunlight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vitamin D]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=70632</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, old-fashioned chicken soup. Chances are you’ve probably tried all of these remedies to ward off symptoms of a cold, but scientists now say that you can cross at least one of them off your list. In the most rigorous study to date investigating whether vitamin D can protect against colds, researchers found that healthy adults who took large doses of the supplement were no less likely to come down with upper respiratory infections — including colds, flu and sinus infections — than those taking placebo. The new study, led by Dr. David Murdoch and his colleagues at the University of Otago in New Zealand, followed 322 healthy participants who were randomly assigned to take either vitamin D or a placebo on a monthly basis for 18 months. All participants came to the research facility so that scientists could observe them taking the pills, but neither the volunteers nor the scientists knew which pills contained the vitamin and which were placebo. Those getting vitamin D supplements received 200,000 IU for each of the first two months, and then 100,000 IU monthly for the remainder of the trial. That amounts to more than 3,000 IU a day, when health officials currently recommend that most adults get about 600 IU of vitamin D daily (primarily to maintain bone health and avoid the bone-weakening disease of osteoporosis). By the end of the study, participants in the vitamin D group had developed a cold or flu an average 3.7 times, compared with 3.8 times in the placebo group. Taking vitamin D also had no impact on the severity or duration of people&#8217;s symptoms nor did it reduce the number of workdays they missed. (MORE: Megadoses of Vitamin D Offer No Benefit) Scientists started looking at vitamin D for cold prevention after early studies showed that tuberculosis patients who had genes that efficiently metabolized vitamin D were less prone to serious lung infections. There was also the intriguing observation that people who lived in sunnier climates — and therefore presumably had<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=70632&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Prevention</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/prevention/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/77742640vitdcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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		<title>A Bird Flu Spreads in Seals. Could Humans Be Next?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/31/a-bird-flu-spreads-in-seals-could-humans-be-next/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/31/a-bird-flu-spreads-in-seals-could-humans-be-next/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:12:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H1N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H3N8]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[harbor seals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEALs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swine flu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=65138</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers report that a new flu virus that killed 162 New England harbor seals appears to have originated in birds, raising the question: if the virus has evolved to spread between mammals, could it jump into humans next?<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=65138&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/115083655.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>H1N1 Vaccines Linked to Guillain-Barre Syndrome but Not Birth Defects</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/11/h1n1-vaccines-linked-to-guillain-barre-syndrome-but-not-birth-defects/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/11/h1n1-vaccines-linked-to-guillain-barre-syndrome-but-not-birth-defects/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:45:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vaccines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth defects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guillain-barre syndrome]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H1N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Immunization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swine flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vaccination]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=63756</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How safe are flu vaccines? Two new studies show that the H1N1 vaccine poses no risk of birth defects when given to pregnant women, but does slightly increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a reversible autoimmune disorder, in patients over 50. In the studies, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists tracked the rates of birth defects and developmental problems such as low birth weight and preterm birth in babies born to Danish women who were vaccinated against H1N1 in 2009-10 during pregnancy. A separate group of scientists in Quebec looked at the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome in millions of people given the vaccine in Canada, also in 2009-10. In the study that focused on Guillain-Barre, Philippe De Wals, a professor of social and preventive medicine at Laval University in Canada, and his colleagues included 4.4 million people in Quebec who received the H1N1 vaccine as part of a mass immunization program during the 2009 &#8220;swine flu&#8221; pandemic; they were all vaccinated over a six-month period from October 2009 to March 2010. (SPECIAL: What You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine) Researchers tracked rates of Guillain-Barre infection for up to eight weeks following vaccination, and found a very small increase in risk in vaccinated people: overall, there were 83 confirmed cases of Guillain-Barre, including 25 among people who had received the H1N1 vaccine. The risk of developing the syndrome, in which the body’s own immune system attacks the nerves, was doubled among vaccinated people, compared with the general population. But the absolute risk was small: based on the data, the authors calculated that about 2 people would be expected to develop Guillain-Barre per every million who were vaccinated — a risk that was limited to adults over 50. “Doubling of a very low risk is still a very low risk,” says De Wals. “The one or two chance per million doses of getting Guillain-Barre is much lower than the chances of getting influenza, being hospitalized and dying of the flu.” The connection between H1N1 vaccines and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=63756&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/96156843h1n1crop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Hand w/needle</media:title>
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		<title>H1N1&#8242;s Death Toll: 15 Times Higher than Previously Thought</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/26/h1n1s-death-toll-15-times-higher-than-previously-thought/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/26/h1n1s-death-toll-15-times-higher-than-previously-thought/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:35:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CDC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H1N1]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=62779</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New estimates put the number of deaths due to H1N1 flu in 2009-10 at about 284,500 — a huge jump from the 18,500 originally reported. What explains the increase?<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=62779&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Flu</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/flu/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/95740892.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>H5N1: Bird Flu Pandemic May Be Closer than Thought, Study Finds</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/21/h5n1-bird-flu-pandemic-may-be-closer-than-thought-study-finds/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/21/h5n1-bird-flu-pandemic-may-be-closer-than-thought-study-finds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:50:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infectious Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bird flu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fouchier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H1N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[H5N1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[influenza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kawaoka]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=62532</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After a delay of more than six months, a controversial paper describing a virulent, man-made form of bird flu was published in the journal Science on Thursday. The findings suggest that we may be closer than we thought to a potentially deadly influenza pandemic. Science released in their entirety the details of a series of experiments conducted by virologist Ron Fouchier and his colleagues at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, in which they genetically engineered the H5N1 bird flu virus and made it jump easily from host to host. The research, along with another paper submitted to Nature by scientists led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who also created an airborne strain of H5N1, was initially suppressed in December by a U.S. government biosecurity group over concerns that the experiments could pose a bioterror risk. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) asked the editors of Science and Nature to strip the reports of their detailed methods, or withhold them altogether, sparking an intense dispute within the scientific community. In March, the NSABB reviewed revised papers submitted by Fouchier and Kawaoka and gave them the green light. The release of Fouchier&#8217;s paper marks the end of months of bitter debate (Kawaoka&#8217;s paper was published in Nature in May) over the risks of government censorship on science versus those of bioterrorists getting their hands on the recipe for deadly flu, but it&#8217;s likely just the launching point for continued discussions and yet-to-be formulated policies for dealing with so-called dual-use research that can have both beneficial and destructive consequences. Fouchier&#8217;s intent was to further researchers&#8217; understanding of how flu viruses work — how they adapt to new hosts and how they learn to hop from person to person. H5N1 spreads easily among birds and usually kills them, but it rarely transmits from one person to another, mainly because it isn&#8217;t airborne. When it does infect human beings, however, it&#8217;s often deadly: of the 606 cases of human H5N1 infection confirmed by the World Health Organization since<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=62532&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Public Health</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/public-health/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/87395827h5n1crop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Bird flu</media:title>
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