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Three More Listeria Infections Linked To Dole Salads

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"A Dole Pre-packed and pre-washed salad"

Listeria manifests itself through nausea, muscle aches, diarrhea, loss of balance and confusion.

Three more listeria infections linked to Dole salads appeared in New York, Missouri and Connecticut. At least sixteen people were hospitalized since last year in July because of a listeria infection caused by the consumption of a salad mixed in the Dole facility in Ohio.

The Facility in Ohio is Now Closed

The salads were sold under the names of Dole, Marketside, Fresh Selection, President’s Choice, Simple Truth and Little Salad Bar. After the last confirmed case of listeria infection linked to the Dole mixed salads, the facility situated in Springfield, Ohio, immediately ceased all production and emitted a recall for all of the salads.

It All Started in July, Last Year

The first listeria infection linked to the Dole mixed and packaged salads took place in July last year. Ever since then, at least, sixteen people were hospitalized, one of which died due to complications from the disease.

The CDC started to investigate the possible source in September, but only reached a conclusion this month. After thorough investigations, they found that the source of infection were the pre-packed salads sold by Dole.

The most recent listeria infection linked to Dole Salads was diagnosed and confirmed on the 3rd of January, current year.

An inspection that took place on Thursday concluded that the Springfield-based facility was using proper equipment and procedures to prevent any outbreak of illness. The origins of the listeria infections are still a mystery for the manufacturer since all of the equipment and personnel checked out.

The CDC Advises the Population to Check All Products before Consuming Them

In order to prevent additional infestations, the CDC urges the people to check the pre-packed salads before buying them, if any of them are under the name of Dole, Marketside, Fresh Selection, President’s Choice, Simple Truth and Little Salad Bar and are marked with the letter A in front of the manufacturing code it means that they are a part of the infected shipment.

Restaurants and supermarkets were also advised to check their produce and send back any salad packaging that fits the above-mentioned description.

Pre-packed and pre-washed fruits and vegetables were included in a “Top 6 foods a food poisoning expert wouldn’t eat” list because of the risk of e-Coli and listeria infestation. While the pre-packed kind could pose a serious threat to the general public, the authorities recommend the consumption of fruits and vegetables, but in their raw, unaltered state.

It is better to pick a dirty carrot, ruccola and some radishes, wash them and mix them in a healthy salad than saving ten minutes with the pre-packed version and contracting listeria in the process.

 Image source: www.flickr.com

The CDC Advises How To Curb Antibiotic Overuse

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"antibiotic overuse during flu season"

The problem is more pronounced during flu season, so the CDC advises how to curb antibiotic overuse that might only make matters worse in the long. It’s common for patients to step into a doctor’s office with a runny nose or sore throat, and be prescribed powerful antibiotics. Even more, it’s often that patients actually demand them.

However, according to Dr. Wayne J. Riley from the Vanderbilt University, it’s in the responsibility of doctors to avoid over-prescription. That implies being both cautious to how often and why they prescribe powerful antibiotics, as well as withstanding the demands of the patient. There are numerous conditions during the flu season that can be resolved without them.

Antibiotic resistance causes 2 million illnesses per year

And, more importantly, acute respiratory infections and other conditions common during this time of the year will not be helped by antibiotics. Yet, they’re far too often prescribed. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2 million illnesses are caused each year by drug-resistant bacteria. Among them, they annually cause 23,000 deaths, a direct response to the over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors.

The powerful drugs are losing their effectiveness due to repeated exposure that makes germs more resistant. Another reason would be the potential side-effects that might occur. According to the CDC, 1 out of every 5 emergency room visits for bad drug reactions are caused by antibiotics. There are several of them who have unfortunate consequences, and may not fully destroy the bacteria due to its resistance.

Thus, doctors are advised to resort to more in-home remedies or at least over-the-counter prescriptions that would equally work. The problem is in both recommending them to the patients, and the patients themselves following with the plan. Most claim that they did not work after not taking the medication correctly. That forces additional testing and prescription of more powerful and unnecessary drugs.

During the flu season, these problems become unfortunately more pronounced. While pediatricians have taken heed of the advice, it appears that the crisis is still present among adults.

Over-the-counter drugs will work

Airway inflammations, such as bronchitis that causes coughing can be healed with cough suppressants and antihistamines or decongestants. Sore throats have pain-relieving drugs that could work, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and others. Sinus infections could be resolved with decongestants, nasal sprays, and pain medication. All of them are common amid the flu season and can be resolved without antibiotics.

The powerful drugs should be a last resort in case of complications or suspicions of more severe conditions, such as pneumonia or strep.

According to Dr. Riley, there is no guarantee that one method will work for everyone. However, it’s better to try over-the-counter medication and monitor the patient’s situation than over-prescribe antibiotics. It only fuels an already severe problem.

Image source: holistic-approach.org

Study Reveals, ‘Minors’ Can Easily Buy E-cigarettes Online

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e-cigarette

In a study analyzing compliance with North Carolina’s electronic cigarette age-verification law, scientists have observed that minors are easily able to circumvent legislation and purchase electronic cigarettes from retailers through the Internet.

“Even despite state laws like North Carolina’s obliging age confirmation, most vendors keep on failing to confirm age as per the law, underscoring the need for vigilant enforcement,” said buy the authors of the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics journal.

Sales of e-cigarettes have been continually on the ascent since they first entered the US market in 2007. By 2013, it had turned into a $2 billion-a-year industry and experts foresee sales could reach $10 billion-a-year by 2017.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rates of e-cigarette use among youngsters are likewise increasing quickly, twofold from 2011 to 2012. The CDC report that in 2013, more than a quarter of a million high school students had never smoked ordinary cigarettes yet had utilized e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes are often depicted as a more secure option to smoking traditional cigarettes, in spite of the fact that groups like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Mayo Clinic are careful about their nicotine substance and links with potentially cancer-causing substances.

At present, 41 states ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, including North Carolina. As per the study authors, though, further research has yet to be carried out to analyze age confirmation among Internet retailers that offer e-cigarettes.

For this study, Rebecca S. Williams of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and associates set out to analyze how often online sellers consented to North Carolina’s age-verification law.

‘E-cigarette vendors online operate in a regulatory vacuum’

The researchers’ selected 11 nonsmoking minors matured 14-17 to make e-cigarette purchases online with a credit card while under supervision. The minors made their buy attempt from computers at the project’s offices.

Almost 98 Internet e-cigarette vendors were targeted by the study. The minors effectively ordered e-cigarettes from 75 of these vendors and of the unsuccessful orders, just five failed because of age verification. As per the authors, this implied that 93.7 percent of the e-cigarette merchants researched failed to accurately confirm their clients’ ages.

Besides this finding, the e-cigarette packages were conveyed by shipping companies that all failed to verify the ages of the buyers upon delivery, with 95% of orders simply left at the door. The majority of the shipping companies concerned do not dispatch cigarettes to purchasers, as indicated by company policy and federal regulation.

According to the study findings, none of the online e-cigarette sellers followed North Carolina’s e-cigarette age-verification law.

“Lacking federal regulation, youth e-cigarette use has increased and e-cigarette vendors’ online work in a regulatory vacuum, utilizing few, if any, efforts to avoid sales to minors,” they wrote.

The results of this study will be of concern to those who are worried about the influence of e-cigarettes. The CDC also report that among nonsmoking youth who have ever used e-cigarettes, 43.9% say they “have intentions” to smoke conventional cigarettes, compared with 21.5% who have never used an e-cigarette.

“Federal law should require and enforce careful age verification for all e-cigarette sales as with the federal PACT (Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking) Act’s requirements for age verification in Internet cigarette sales,” study authors said.

Lately, Medical News Today reported on a study recommending that the introduction of new regulations that could modify the content of cigarettes is unlikely to significantly affect the current demand for illicit tobacco.

CDC Reports, This Year’s Influenza Vaccine Is Only 23% Effective

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flu-shot

As a consequence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urge all people at high risk of influenza related complications to seek treatment as early as possible if any symptoms of flu are recognized.

“Doctors ought to be aware that all hospitalized patients and all outpatients at high risk for severe complications must be treated at the earliest opportunity with one of three available flu antiviral medications if flu is suspected, in spite of a patient’s vaccination status and without holding up for confirmatory testing,” says Dr. Joseph Bresee, branch head of the Influenza Division at the CDC.

“Health care experts ought to exhort patients at high risk to call promptly if they get symptoms of flu,” he adds.

The CDC arrived at their assessment, published in the week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), by examining 2,321 children and grown-ups with severe respiratory sickness.

Of these, 950 (41%) had the flu virus, with 916 (96%) testing positive for flu A – all of which were H3n2 viruses – and 35 (4%) testing positive for flu B. The 2014-15 influenza vaccine was found to have been administered to 49% of patients with flu and 56% of patients without the virus.

From this, the CDC estimates that influenza vaccine has diminished an individual’s risk of visiting a specialist because of influenza by 23%. This result stayed after bookkeeping for patients’ age, sex, race/ethnicity, self-reported health and the number of days between sickness onset and study enlistment.

Vaccine efficacy against H3n2 viruses was assessed to be highest among kids and teenagers aged 6 months to 17 years, at 26%. Vaccine efficacy was lower among grown-ups aged 18-49 and 50 and over, at 12% and 14%, correspondingly.

The report authors say their results demonstrate the efficacy of this season’s vaccine is comparatively low, contrasted with some seasons where vaccine efficacy has arrived at 50-60%.

70% of this season’s H3N2 viruses are ‘drift variants,’ making flu vaccine less effective

The CDC say their evaluation supports past discoveries that the 2014-15 influenza vaccine has low efficacy against circulating flu A H3n2 viruses, which, as the report demonstrates, have been the most major viruses this season.

H3n2 viruses are the most serious, bringing about the most elevated number of hospitalizations and deaths. Amid the three seasons with the most elevated death rates in the course of recent years – 2012-13, 2007-08 and 2003-04 – H3n2 viruses were the most widespread.

The CDC note that around 70% of this season’s H3n2 viruses have been recognized as “drift variants” – viruses that have antigenic or genetic changes that make them unique in relation to the virus included in this season’s influenza vaccine, implying the vaccine efficacy is decreased.

Vaccine efficacy, the CDC says, is also reliant on the age and health of the individual getting the vaccine; it tends to be most effective in young, healthy individuals and less effective among older ones – as showed in the report’s estimations.

Findings should not deter from vaccination

Regardless of the low efficacy of the 2014-15 influenza vaccine, the CDC keep on suggesting that all individuals aged 6 months and older get the vaccine, as it may still impede infections from some circulating flu A H3n2 viruses and diminish acute influenza related complications.

“Additionally, vaccine may ensure against other flu viruses that can circulate later,” the report authors said. “Since early November, 2014, less than half of US occupants had reported getting flu vaccine this season. Flu vaccine, even when efficacy is decreased, can avert thousands of hospitalizations.”

Additionally, the CDC say their estimation stresses the importance of extra prevention and treatment measures against flu – especially for people aged 65 and older, young children and others at high risk of influenza related complications.

The report authors write:

“Flu antiviral medications ought to be utilized as suggested for treatment in patients, despite of their vaccination status. Antiviral treatment can diminish the term of ailment and lessen complications connected with flu.

Antiviral treatment ought to be utilized for any patient with suspected or affirmed flu who is hospitalized, has serious or progressive sickness, or is at high risk for complications from flu, regardless of the possibility that the disease appears mild.”

They include that antiviral treatment ought to be administered in 48 hours of influenza symptoms presenting, yet it can still be effective among some patients even if initiated after this time.

The need for more effective influenza vaccines

The report authors say that while influenza vaccines are the best assurance we have against flu at present, there is a need for more effectual ones, and this is something that may soon be on the cards as indicated by another study reported by MNT today.

Scientists Created Universal Flu Vaccine That Can Fight With All Flu Stains

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Newly discovered flu vaccine

A recently discovered universal one time flu vaccine has entered the clinical trial stage.

Researchers of McMaster University created a new vaccine which can protect people from all kind of flu strains. . The vaccine is extremely beneficial for people who have not yet get a flu shot.

The Center of Disease Control and Prevention called it as an “immediate vaccination of flu”.

Mathew Miller, the lead author of the report discussed the advantages of universal flu shot. He stated that the new flu shot can effortlessly fight with all kinds of flu strain. It would avert the emergence of flu even in the case of mismatched. The best part is that the new flu vaccine can protect people for a long time period of 20 years.

The researchers performed a trial in order to determine the effectiveness of new universal flu vaccine. They compared the universal vaccine with a strain-specific vaccine.  In the beginning, scientists discovered that universal flu vaccine is relatively less effective than the other vaccines.  Therefore, scientists separately carried out a test. Surprisingly, the new vaccine showed promising result in its second test. It worked fairly better as compared to ordinary flu vaccines.

A few months ago, the World Health organization warned about the newly muted flu strain. The health agency of the United Nation reported that previous flu vaccine would be ineffective for the H2N3. Hence, the researchers started working on a new vaccine.

The report is described in detail in the Journal of Virology.

CDC Report: Only 23 percent of Flu Vaccine Showing Good Results

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Flu Shot

This year flu vaccine failed to tackle the flu outburst in the United States.  Merely 23 percent of flu shots and vaccines fought against the infection, according to the Morbitidity and mortality Weekly Report

Generally, the work efficiency of the flu vaccine changes from one year to another. Since the past few decades vaccines used to cover nearly 50 to 60 percent of the flu strains.

This time, such a low proportion of effectiveness of flu vaccine has marked a new history. Dr. Alicia Fry, a flu vaccine expert at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention called it an “uncommon year” in terms of flu epidemic.

Earlier, the federal health agency had announced that flu vaccine would not be that much beneficial.  The health officials informed that a new flu virus known as H3N2 would probably infect a large number of people. The virus H3N2 emerged after a short time period of the creation of these flu drugs. Therefore, the majority of the available flu vaccines were not designed to remove the mutated strain.

Eventually, all the predictions of CDC turned out true. This winter season, H3N2 were responsible for two third of the illness in the United States.  The strain sent thousands of people to the hospitals. Children and people above 65 were the main target of the infection.

As per the reports of health agencies, around 2,231 people were hospitalized. The figures only include the data of five major states such as Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Washington

Additionally, CDC says it does not mean that flu shots are completely useless.  It is a misconception that January and February are the only month in which flu attacks. The flu infection can also affect people after the winter season.

CDC advised doctors to push Tamiflu & Other Antivirals during Nasty Flu Season

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nasty-flu-season

In the middle of the disturbing flu season, health officials are now pushing doctors to prescribe antiviral drugs regularly.

On Friday a news alert was sent to the doctors by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advising regular use of Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs for the flu patients and others at high risk of complications like pneumonia.

CDC officials say that the worst flu attack is more dangerous to young children and very elderly people. In addition to that the flu vaccines is not working against the virus as the virus has come along with a mutated version. So “it’s more important than usual” that doctors treat certain patients with Tamiflu or other antiviral medications, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said at a press conference Friday.

An increasing flu that spread from 43 to 46 states in a week is now facing a little drop as reported in by states, which according to some researchers could be the end of this worst flu season.

The flu season tends to last about 13 weeks and the data from CDC suggests that the nation is about seven weeks in, Frieden said. “It seems we’re right in the middle of flu season,” he said.

On another node in some states which the number of flu encounters are decreased, an increment from some stated has also been reported. Health officials say that it is unclear that whether flu has peaked overall or not.

CDC research suggests doctors prescribe antivirals to one in five high-risk flu patients. CDC officials say the number should be higher.

A number of studies have found that the regular use of antivirals can shorten the amount of time if someone is sick with flu. The drugs also can prevent patients from becoming sick enough to end up in a hospital intensive care unit — or worse, Frieden said.

“Antiviral flu medicines save lives,” he said.

A first alert was sent to the physicians last month regarding the severeness of this flu season and encouraging treatment of the patients using antivirals and now the second alert was sent this Friday repeating the previous recommendations and pointed the approval of the new antiviral that is approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month. It’s called Rapivab, and is an infusion that can be given to sick patients who aren’t able to take Tamiflu pills or another, inhalable antiviral medicine called Relenza.

According to CDC officials Doctors are cautious regarding prescribing this drug as they need lab confirmation first. In cases in which patients delayed seeking treatment, doctors may worry the patients are already be too far into the illness for the drugs to do much good.

Last year, a respected international network of researchers — the Cochrane Collaboration — published a review of past studies on the medications, and found there was no good evidence to support claims that Tamiflu reduces flu complications or flu-related hospitalizations. At best, it shortens flu symptoms by half a day, the Cochrane report said.

The CDC shouldn’t push antivirals unless they have a strong proof regarding the prevention and key complications in the patients, said one of the Cochrane study’s authors, Peter Doshi, in an interview Friday. He is an assistant professor at the University Of Maryland School Of Pharmacy.

CDC officials say the Cochrane review had limitations; for example, Cochrane was more concerned of the high-quality studies but none that included hospitalized patients.

CDC officials say the agency is more concerned with the observational studies, which are considered less rigorous than the research Cochrane focused on, but which offered a look at what happened in hospitalized patients. And that research did find a benefit. Also, there aren’t really other options: Against flu, antiviral medicines are what’s left in the medical arsenal when the vaccine doesn’t work, experts say.

US Ends Enhanced Airport Ebola Screening For Travelers From Mali

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Coast Guard Corpsman checks the temperature of a traveler at Washington Dulles International Airport

Voyagers from Mali will no more face enhanced screening upon landing in the United States, US authorities said on Monday, in a move reflecting the West African country’s gains over Ebola.

Beginning on Tuesday, travelers from Mali won’t need to go to the United States through five particular airports or be subjected to extra screening or checking for the infection, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Bureau of Homeland Security said in an announcement.

Authorities said the last Ebola patient in Mali tested negative on December. 5, and there are no other active cases in the nation, which has seen cases of the ailment as a consequence of the flare-up in adjacent Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Enhanced screening from passengers from those 3 countries are still in operation. Also, any individual who went from Mali and entered the United Stated before Tuesday must be screened for the infection for 21 days, the period it takes for symptoms to appear, the announcement said.

“Following isolated cases of Ebola in Mali would not automatically oblige re-institution of these measures, which are utilized just when there is a danger of prevalent transmission,” authorities said.

US authorities established extra layers of airline traveler screening in October as part of an intensified attempt to stop the spread of the infection. Despite the fact that the impact of the outburst is focused in West Africa, the September death a Liberian man who fell sick in Texas shook Americans.

Flu infections continue to outpace last year’s rate

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flu-infection-continues-last-year-rate

Health officials say that Flu infections have outrun the last year’s percentage in San Diego County.

Lab has confirmed 607 influenza cases this season which were previously recorded to be 359 last season. Similarly patients seeking treatment for the flu in emergency rooms are found to be 9 percent which is thrice the rate recorded last season.

According to the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, There have been no flu-related deaths reported so far.
Public-Health experts say that there is still time for the people to get vaccinated as it only takes two weeks for the body to produce enough antibodies against the virus.

But according to the researchers the virus H3N2 have mutated this season so the vaccine doesn’t offer full protection against the virus. CDC has predicted that flu this season would be a severe one. Further research is been going to empower the vaccine.

To reduce risks of the flu thorough hand washing and use of sanitizers have been recommended by health experts. They also urge people to avoid touching their nose, eyes, nose and mouth with their fingers, and to minimize the risk of contagion by staying home when sick.

For further information and details call 211 or visit sdiz.org. People without health insurance may want to consider seeking a flu shot at one of the county’s immunization clinics.

Flu epidemic hits US and claiming young lives

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Flu-epidemic-hits-US-young-lives

CDC says that US has hit a flu epidemic threshold and already claimed the life of 15 children.

US Federal public health agency, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the death of 122 people from pneumonia and influenza has surpassed the baseline and now stands at the epidemic threshold.

Number of states reporting high flu activity have also increased from 13 to 22.

The reason behind the explosion of the disease is due to the mutation of the virus named H3N2 so eventually the effectiveness of the vaccines has reduced.

CDC has reported that the effectiveness of the vaccine was recorded to be 55 percent last year which has certainly reduced because of the mutation of H3N2.

Some cases of H1N1 and two types of Influenza B are also reported. Some are included in the current flu vaccines and some are not. CDC recommends people to get vaccinated so that it will protect people from the flu that out there.

CDC said in a statement “A total of 15 influenza-associated deaths have been reported during the 2014-2015 season from nine states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia,”

About half the children sick enough to be hospitalized had been perfectly healthy. Many of those with so-called underlying conditions were obese or had asthma, both of which can raise the risk that someone will get seriously ill from flu.

Generally flu hits people of very young and very old age. Yearly it kills 4000 to 50000 people a year depending on the season.

The best way to protect ourselves from flu is to wash our hands frequently. Flu is actually transmitted by close contact with someone, coughing, sneezing or touching the droplets and touching nose, eyes or mouth with it.

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