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.
influenza
Study Shows the Killer 1918 Flu Began Even Earlier Than Thought
Contagion was high on the box office list again last weekend, proof that millions of Americans are entertained by scenes of infection, suffering, sniffles and autopsies of Gwyneth Paltrow’s brain. The movie can sometimes veer a …
Afraid of the Flu Shot? Try a Smaller Needle
Flu vaccine makers began shipping on Monday a new form of the annual flu shot, with a significantly shorter needle. The new vaccine should make it easier for people with a fear of needles to get immunized, and in the event of a …
CDC: 115 Kids Died of Flu Last Season, Most Weren’t Vaccinated
Children rarely die of the flu, but the illness can be more severe than parents think — which is why, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday, vaccination is crucial.
It’s Back: Bird Flu Returns, and This Time It’s Mutated
MIT Scientists Develop a Drug to Fight Any Viral Infection
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 …
One Shot Wonder? Progress on a Universal Flu Vaccine
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 …
Family MattersPregnancy
Flu Season Prep: Pregnant Women Should Get Vaccinated
It’s summertime, which seems like a bit of an odd time to be publishing research about influenza. Who’s thinking about fever, chills and achiness when skies are sunny? Well, if you’re pregnant come fall when flu …
How Flu Spreads on a Plane
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 …
More Wisdom From a Long-Ago Plague
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 …
Post-H1N1, Why You Still Need to Worry About Flu
The H1N1 pandemic has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of the flu strain that started it all.
The swine flu pandemic is over
So sayeth the World Health Organization (WHO)—and they should know, since they were the ones who declared a full, phase six-level pandemic a little more than a year ago. Now it’s done—this morning WHO head Dr. Margaret Chan announced that the group’s emergency committee of top flu experts had convinced her that the pandemic had …