Airlines stop swine flu victims flying

British airlines have put into effect measures to stop people with swine flu boarding flights in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further. British Airways said there had been a “very small number of cases” where people who had checked in with symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel after having medical checks

Share

Report: North Korea test-fires more missiles

North Korea fired a pair of short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Saturday. Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said. She had hepatitis C, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities said.

Share

Police: Hospital employee swiped shots, spread hepatitis C

A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say. Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said

Share

Why British Health Officials Say Swine Flu is Nothing to Party About

A month ago, Britain’s Health Secretary Andy Burnham issued a statement urging British citizens not to panic despite a surge in cases of H1N1 influenza virus in the country. Now it seems health officials have the opposite problem, and are urging parents not to hold “swine flu parties” which some people believe will build up children’s immunity by infecting them with the virus. Parents in Britain have long held “chicken pox parties” at the beginning of summer so that children can catch the disease at a convenient time

Share

Doctors warn against ‘swine flu parties’

Health experts are warning parents against holding "swine flu parties" in the hope of infecting their children with the H1N1 virus. Talk of swine flu parties has emerged on Internet forums. The idea is that exposing a child to the H1N1 virus while it remains relatively mild will give the child immunity if the virus returns in a more virulent form later on.

Share

China tries to stop spread of HIV/AIDS among prostitutes

A 19-year-old prostitute working in an apartment that doubles as a brothel said she has up to eight clients a day. Working in the southern boom city of Shenzhen, a special economic zone just north of Hong Kong, she told CNN she worries about getting AIDS, but has her own prevention measures. “I always use condoms or take an injection.

Share

Weapon against epidemics: Cell phones

Cell phone technology is helping developing nations prepare for disease threats such as a new strain of swine flu, an outbreak of measles or the increased spread of HIV. Kenya proved it in 2007, when the East African nation suffered its first case of the polio virus in more than 20 years, said Yusuf Ajack Ibrahim, a health care worker at the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. As thousands of Somalis fled to Kenya to avoid violence in their homeland, the exodus sparked a serious health crisis, Ibrahim said

Share

Scotland reports first ‘swine flu’ death outside Americas

A person with swine flu died in Scotland on Sunday, the government announced, marking the first known death of a swine flu patient outside of the Americas, according to the latest World Health Organization information. The patient who died in Scotland had “underlying health conditions,” the Scottish government statement said. No information was released about the patient.

Share