Can I get bird flu from cleaning my backyard bird bath?


Can I get bird flu (or possibly anything else) by cleaning my backyard bird feeders or bird bath? I typically dump the water in the bird bath once a week and brush it clean with hot water before filling it. I live in the great-lakes area (north of Lake Erie) and I don’t [...]

My Patio Heater Won’t ignite and I can’t smell any gas coming through?


I bought my patio heater last year and ever since I have been having problems getting it to start. The gas bottle is fine because we use the same bottle to cook on the BBQ. It has just been fill. I have tried lighting it manually by turning the gas on and lighting the flu [...]

Will the Swine Flu Shot Be Ready by October?


We’re not done with swine flu yet… or maybe swine flu isn’t done with us.

As of the beginning of June, the U.S.

NYC Health Dept. Buys Google Ads for Flu Searches


When the Health Blog Googled “flu” this morning, we were surprised to see an ad for the New York City Health Department show up at the top of the search results page. This is what it looked like:

So what’s a public-health agency doing buying search ads? We gave the health department a call to learn [...]

WHO Could Soon Declare Flu Pandemic


WHO
WHO’s pandemic alert levels.

The director-general of the WHO is likely to declare a full-blown flu pandemic in the next few weeks, Bloomberg News is reporting today, citing three unnamed sources.

Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s top flu official, publicly suggested something similar yesterday, when he said that the WHO is “getting closer” to upping the pandemic-alert level [...]

It’s Official: Peggy Hamburg Will Lead FDA


Those keeping score at home can cross one more job off the list of long-unfilled federal health positions: By a voice vote, the Senate yesterday confirmed Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg to lead the FDA.

It’s been pretty clear for a while that the Senate would greenlight Hamburg for the job; some key Republicans piped up in her [...]

WHO Advisers: No Large-Scale H1N1 Vaccine Manufacturing Yet


For now, companies should keep cranking out vaccine against seasonal flu, while research continues into the best way to make a vaccine against the new strain of H1N1 flu.

That was the conclusion of a group of WHO advisers, who wrote that it would be “premature to recommend that commercial-scale production of influenza A (H1N1) [...]

Flu Kits


With all the talk about swine flu in the news lately, you may have heard mention of a “flu kit” — basically, a bunch of stuff to keep handy in case you come down with some form of influenza. The things in your flu kit can help keep you comfortable while the virus runs [...]

How the demand for Tamiflu and Relenza may kill us all


The current strain of swine flu appears to be sensitive to the anti-virals Tamiflu and Relenza.

That’s causing huge demand for these medications, with many pharmacies rapidly selling out. For instance, a typical pharmacy may fill one prescription of Tamiflu a week, but now, dispenses up to 25 packages per day.

There’s clear stockpiling going on, [...]

Should health care providers be forced to work through a flu pandemic?


With swine flu in the news, some are wondering what the responsibilities of health care providers are in case of a full-blown pandemic.

Shadowfax has unearthed an article citing little-known laws in some states, “that authorize government officials to order health care professionals to work during declared public health emergencies, even when doing so would pose [...]