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+Flu | November 8, 2011

Study: H1N1 Can Be Deadly Even for Healthy Kids

By Meredith Melnick

Flu prevention is important for everyone, but here’s another reason to make sure to get vaccinated: in a study of childhood flu deaths from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, researchers found that otherwise healthy kids can succumb to the virus, particularly if they’ve already got an increasingly common bacterial infection.

+Flu | October 26, 2011

It’s No Guarantee, But You Should Get the Flu Shot Anyway

By Meredith Melnick
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As vaccines go, the flu shot is no exemplar. A comprehensive new review of the research, published online by The Lancet Infectious Diseases, finds that the vaccine prevented illness in 59% of adults aged 18 to 64, and in eight of 12 flu seasons studied.

+Flu | October 13, 2011

No Excuses! A Brief Guide to the Flu Shot

By Meredith Melnick
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We got our flu shots at TIME Healthland HQ this week, which reminds us to remind you to do the same. A few flu shot basics to follow.

+Flu | August 30, 2011

It’s Back: Bird Flu Returns, and This Time It’s Mutated

By Alice Park
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During the last couple of flu seasons, we were all worried about H1N1, a new and virulent strain of influenza, but this winter we may have to contend with a much deadlier foe: H5N1, or bird flu. Some Asian countries are reporting this week the first cases of a mutant strain of the virus spreading [...]

+Infectious Disease | August 11, 2011

MIT Scientists Develop a Drug to Fight Any Viral Infection

By Meredith Melnick
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Scientists at MIT are developing a new drug that may fight viruses as effectively as antibiotics like penicillin dispatch bacteria. The broad-spectrum treatment is designed to trigger cell suicide in cells that have been invaded by a virus, thereby halting infection, while leaving healthy cells alone.

+Flu | July 29, 2011

One Shot Wonder? Progress on a Universal Flu Vaccine

By Meredith Melnick
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A universal flu vaccine may be on its way, thanks to a team of scientists in Britain and Switzerland and one anonymous patient who was immune to both of the main types of influenza A virus, one of the more common classes of flu bugs that circulate each year. It turns out that the patient [...]

+Infectious Disease | June 16, 2011

How Flu Spreads on a Plane

By Bryan Walsh
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As if the generally horrific experience of flying wasn’t bad enough (maybe I’m just a little sour about the 90 minutes I spent on the tarmac at Newark last night), a new study [PDF] in Emerging Infectious Diseases shows that flying can make you as sick as you are miserable.

+Safety | April 20, 2011

Hand Sanitizers That Prevent MRSA? Not So Fast

By Sora Song
safe4hours

(Updated) On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had sent warning letters to four makers of hand sanitizing products that claim to prevent infection from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

+Flu | January 10, 2011

One Stop Flu Shot: Hope for a Universal Influenza Vaccine

By Meredith Melnick
Kallista Images

Perhaps there’s a silver lining to last year’s H1N1 pandemic flu outbreak: those who were infected and survived appear to have developed ‘super flu’ antibodies that may help researchers develop an influenza inoculation that could be effective for a lifetime.

+Flu | November 2, 2010

More Wisdom From a Long-Ago Plague

By Jeffrey Kluger
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In its own deadly way, the 1918 flu pandemic is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s hard to say anything good about a global scourge that claimed 50 million lives, but a new article published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases is one more example of how the lessons learned in that terrible time [...]