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Your Health
What is Influenza (Also Called Flu)?
The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to
death. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year.

Every year in the United States, on average:

5% to 20% of the population gets the flu;
more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications; and
about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes.
Some people, such as older people, young children, and people with certain health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart
disease), are at high risk for serious flu complications.
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
Tobacco                                                                                                        
435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity                                                         
365,000
Alcohol                                                                                                     
85,000  
Microbial Agents                                                                                    
75,000
Toxic Agents                                                                                           
55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes                                                                           
26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs                                              
32,000
Suicide                                                                                                   
30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms                                                                
29,000
Homicide                                                                                                
20,308
Sexual Behaviors                                                                                   
20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect                                                
17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin                     
7,600
Marijuana                                                                                                    
  
0
5 Million African Child Deaths Each Year
FACTS ABOUT MALARIA
March 2009

About 3.3 billion people - half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria.
Every year, this leads to about 250 million malaria cases and nearly one million
deaths. People living in the poorest countries are the most vulnerable.

Malaria is especially a serious problem in Africa, where one in every five (20%)
childhood deaths is due to the effects of the disease. An African child has on
average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever each year. And every 30
seconds a child dies from malaria
Drug-Resistant Staph Germ's Toll Is
Higher Than Thought
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 17, 2007; Page A01
Staph Infection Death

A dangerous germ that has been spreading
around the country causes more
life-threatening infections than public
health authorities had thought and is killing
more people in the United States each year
than the AIDS virus, federal health officials
reported yesterday.
The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous
staph bacterium that has become
invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is
responsible for more than 94,000 serious
infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each
year, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention calculated.

Although mounting evidence shows that the
infection is becoming more common, the
estimate published today in the Journal of
the American Medical Association is the
first national assessment of the toll from
the insidious pathogen, officials said.

"This is a significant public health problem.
We should be very worried," said Scott K.
Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the
CDC.

Other researchers noted that the estimate
includes only the most serious infections
caused by the germ, known as
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA).

"It's really just the tip of the iceberg," said
Elizabeth A. Bancroft, a medical
epidemiologist at the Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health who wrote an
editorial in JAMA accompanying the new
studies. "It is astounding."
Take care of your health before your illness .......
                             Scientists Find 2 New HIV Antibodies
(Sept. 3) -- Researchers said Friday they have isolated two antibodies that block HIV
from multiplying in the body and causing severe disease -- an exciting development
that could lead to the creation of a vaccine against AIDS
The two antibodies appear to be 10 times more effective than others in defusing HIV,
the scientists from Scripps Research Institute and the International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative reported in the journal Science.
Other so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies, immune system cells that stave off
infection, have been isolated from HIV-positive patients in the past. But the newly
discovered antibodies are not only much more effective, they work against scores of
different strains of the virus found in various continents around the world.

"We looked at 162 different [HIV] viruses, and these antibodies neutralized 120 to 130
of strains from all across the world," Dennis Burton of Scripps, the lead author of the
study, told Time magazine.
The researchers collected blood samples from more than 1,800 people in Thailand,
Australia and Africa who had been infected with HIV for at least three years without
the infection progressing to full-blown AIDS. These individuals are most likely to
produce antibodies that interfere with the replication of the virus. The researchers
eventually isolated two antibodies, called PG9 and PG16, from one African patient.
The antibodies could potentially be used to treat HIV-positive patients who develop
severe disease. But more than that, researchers hope to find molecules that can
stimulate the body to produce these antibodies. These molecules could be the main
building block for a vaccine that would protect against HIV. [Reported on AOL NEWS.