Saturday, February 23, 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

In U.S., flu vaccine worked in just over half of those who got it

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. government analysis of this season's flu vaccine suggests it was effective in only 56 percent of people who got the shot, and it largely failed to protect the elderly against an especially deadly strain circulating during flu season.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the findings underscore the need for more effective weapons in the fight against influenza, which kills between 3,000 and 50,000 people in the United States each year depending on the severity of the flu season.

"We simply need a better vaccine against influenza, one that works better and lasts longer," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement on Thursday.

Experts generally estimate the effectiveness of flu vaccines to be between 50 percent and 70 percent, but this vaccine appears to have fallen on the low side of that range.

The vaccine did cut the risk of medical visits caused by either influenza A or influenza B by 56 percent, according to the study published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

It was more effective against influenza B, protecting 67 percent of those who were vaccinated. Against the influenza A (H3N2) strain, the vaccine protected only 47 percent.

The protective benefits of the vaccine against influenza B were consistent across age groups. That was not the case with the influenza A (H3N2) component of the vaccine, which protected 46 percent to 58 percent of people aged 6 months to 64 years, but only 9 percent of those 65 and older, a finding that was statistically insignificant.

The estimates are based on studies of 2,697 children and adults enrolled in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network between December 3 and January 19. The CDC said those estimates may change by the end of the flu season, when more people have been sampled.

Even so, the findings suggest that a large group of elderly people, who are consistently the most vulnerable to influenza, were unprotected during this year's flu season.

POOR IMMUNE RESPONSE TO VACCINES

One possible explanation may be that in older individuals, the immune system often produces a less robust immune response to vaccines, or to any infection.

CDC experts suggested that poor immune response to the influenza A (H3N2) component of the vaccine may help explain why the elderly were not protected, but said in the report the findings "should not discourage future vaccination by persons aged 65 years (or older), who are at greater risk for more severe cases and complications from influenza."

Dr. Joseph Bresee, a flu expert at the CDC, said overall the vaccine worked "OK," but it is not fully clear why people over 65 responded poorly.

"Part of it is they are elderly and they respond less vigorously to vaccines. But it appears that some of the people, at least, developed a less robust response to this particular antigen," he said, referring to the H3N2 component of the flu vaccine.

"Why that is, I don't think we know yet. We're looking at it closely," he said.

Bresee said most of the elderly in the study took conventional flu vaccine, and not the high-dose version developed by vaccine giant Sanofi to address issues of poor immune responses in the elderly.

"We'd love to be able to look at the question of whether it is actually more effective or not. We just don't have enough use yet," he said.

Sanofi said it shipped 6 million doses of the special formulation for the elderly, but it did not have information on how many of the doses were used, or whether any had been used by patients in the study.

What is clear, Bresee said, is the need for the elderly who get sick with flu symptoms to seek treatment with antiviral medications, such as Roche Holding Ag's Tamiflu, which can reduce the severity of their illness.

CDC noted that vaccine effectiveness has been known to vary based on a number of factors including virus type, age, the particular flu season and variations in an individual's immunity.

"Although it's far from perfect, flu vaccination is by far the best tool we have to protect from flu," Frieden said.

BETTER VACCINES

Frieden said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as pharmaceutical companies are working to produce better vaccines. Efforts include the use of genetic engineering to develop more potent and more modern flu vaccines, with the hope of ultimately developing a universal flu vaccine that could protect against all strains of flu. Experts predict that could be possible within eight to 10 years.

"It's going to be hard but it's well worth the effort," Frieden said.

Already there are signs of change. In November, the Swiss drugmaker Novartis won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Flucelvax, a seasonal flu vaccine grown in animal cell cultures instead of live chicken eggs, a speedier and more reliable process that could help build stockpiles in the event of a pandemic.

In December, GlaxoSmithKline won FDA approval for a new seasonal flu shot called Fluarix that protects against four strains of seasonal flu - known as a quadrivalent vaccine - instead of three strains, known as a trivalent vaccine. The announcement followed the approval last February of AstraZeneca's four-strain flu nasal spray made by the company's MedImmune unit. Current vaccines tackled two A strains and one B strain. The quadrivalent vaccines will add an additional B strain.

Last month, the FDA approved the first gene-based flu vaccine developed by privately held Protein Sciences Corp, which uses genetic engineering to grow portions of the virus in insect cells.

"What we're looking at is really incremental improvements, because if we could make the breakthrough improvements easily it would have happened already," Dr. Leonard Friedland, vice president of clinical and medical affairs for vaccines in North America at GlaxoSmithKline, said in an interview last month.

Glaxo's Fluarix is the first inactivated flu shot to include four instead of three strains of flu.

"It was just licensed and will be available for next season," Friedland said, noting that Sanofi is also in the process of having their four-strain flu vaccine approved.

AstraZeneca's FluMist, a live, attenuated or weakened flu vaccine, will also have a four-strain version available for next flu season.

Dr. Chris Ambrose, a vice president at AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, said the company plans to completely switch to the four-strain version of Flumist.

Sanofi Spokeswoman Donna Cary said the company has produced flu vaccines for specific age groups, including its high dose vaccine for the elderly.

"The next step for the future is to get to the point where we don't need to develop a new vaccine every year," Cary said. "The main thing we are all looking forward to is the universal vaccine."

(Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flu-vaccine-worked-just-over-half-americans-got-191418100--finance.html

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Google announces Chromebook Pixel: 1.8GHz Core i5, 2,560 x 1,700 touchscreen, with LTE option; pre-order now, ships in April

Google announces Chromebook Pixel 18GHz Core i5, 2,560 x 1,700 touchscreen, with LTE option preorder now, ships in April

Only this morning we were being teased with the idea of a touchscreen Chromebook. Well, good news for people who hate waiting -- it's here, it's called the Pixel, and you can pre-order today. The all-Google laptop is aimed at those who live in the cloud, but want a little more from their machine. Built from the ground up for the web, the 12.85-inch 3:2 ratio display claims to offer 18 percent more vertical space than 16:9 does. The screen the Pixel has is -- as you can imagine -- one of its proudest features, sporting a 2,560 x 1,700 resolution, giving a PPI of 239, and offers a brightness of 400nit. Oh, and of course, it's touch-enabled so whatever your input preference, you're covered. On the inside, there's a dual-core 1.8Ghz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and two SSD options -- 32Gb or 64GB. If that's not enough, Google's ahead of you, and is throwing in 1TB of Drive storage with every Pixel for three years -- what it expects the life of the machine to be. You won't be basing your choice just on storage though, as the smaller capacity model is WiFi only, while the 64GB comes with Verizon LTE baked right in, and a choice of plans.

As for the rest of the features, the Pixel also has a triple-microphone configuration -- with one under the keyboard -- which helps improve noise cancellation, including the rattle of your typing during excited hangouts. This is also where the speakers are hidden, so it will be interesting to see how those play nice together. Other features include an "HD" camera, a custom keyboard action for less finger-fatigue, and an enhanced smooth glass trackpad. As for ins and outs, there are two USB ports, a mini displayport, a mic / headphone jack and an SD card reader -- notably, no Ethernet. Wirelessly, you have WiFi a thru n and Bluetooth (plus that LTE if you opt in). Wondering what effect that display might have on the (59Wh) battery? Well Google claims its open-source test (available for criticism online) has rated the Pixel at five hours. If you want to get yourself some touchscreen Pixel action, you can order starting today from the Play store, or Best Buy starting tomorrow. The WiFi-only model will cost you $1,299, rising to $1,449 if you want some LTE (currently US / Verizon only). Not enough info for you right there? Why not head over to our minty-fresh hands-on.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Tlnmko01K5I/

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Win A Pong IPad Case Worth $120 And An IPhone Case Worth $80!

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Source: http://www.win-free-stuff.com.au/win-a-pong-ipad-case-worth-120-and-an-iphone-case-worth-80

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Just Starting Out With Article Marketing? Here's What You Need To ...

You will encounter many so-called experts when you?re doing research on traffic-generating techniques like article marketing, but do not be fooled by the brand of info they?re trying to sell you. Most of these gurus? expertise comes via the ability to sell you on the lie that they?re experts at all. Find out the truth about article marketing in the text below.

There are many article marketing submission sites, but when starting out stay with just one site. This will give you a chance to become familiar with the website and how it works. Submit two or three articles per week for a couple of weeks before adding on another submission site.

Be bold and powerful with your words. Readers want to know that the writer is really speaking their mind. To influence them even more, use strong wording to prove your point. Bold your most powerful words, and use bullet points to draw their eyes to the places you want them to focus most.

Gain more exposure for yourself and your site by posting guest articles on blogs in your topic areas. Search for high-quality blogs that focus on your same group of target readers. Ask if they will let you provide a guest post. Remember, though, to add a short bio with your site and author information at the end of each blog post.

Keep your articles at a shorter length. If this isn?t a school paper or essay, don?t make it one. Your consumers don?t want to read a book to find out more about you, they want articles that are short and sweet, to the point, and clear on the message completely so everything is easy to soak in and understand.

Spinning articles is a very controversial topic, and the most knowledgeable article marketers know that it is one to avoid. Articles that are spun using software designed for that purpose are often ungrammatical or difficult to understand. In addition, you?re not saying anything new with a spun article, which is worth far more than luring traffic to your website with duplicate content that is simply reformatted. Spinning articles can also land you in court if you inadvertently violate any copyright laws. It?s much better to use your time writing creative articles than wasting it spinning useless ones.

Make sure that your articles contain the information your reader is looking for. The simple act of repeating keywords with loads of filler, without including any real content that the reader wants, is going to put you on the fast track to nowhere. Your article needs to be something that people will want to read.

Stay on topic. Your article should always be relevant to whatever it is promoting. If you are writing about home improvement, there is no reason to throw in a story about your recent vacation to the Bahamas. Readers want the content to match the topic, so make sure you don?t stray too far.

One of the most important aspects of article marketing expert is the use of keywords and key phrases. They are important because while you can write an incredibly amazing article about a particular subject, if you do not sufficiently incorporate keywords and key phrases, the article will not show up on search results. To do this properly, before writing the article, first select the keywords and key phrases that you will use. Afterwards, write the article and remember to include the keywords and key phrases several times in a natural way.

Article marketing is a very useful tool to get your business goals and things about it published in thousands of places across various mediums. It can not only catch the eye of a consumer, but make you very many future clients. If you use article marketing, you can be sure your work will be seen far and wide across all kinds of different platforms.

Now that you know about some solid and legitimate article marketing tips and tactics, you can begin to formulate your business and avoid those high-priced gurus out there who insist that you cannot make money online unless you use their system specifically. Avoid those guys and use what you?ve learned here to make it.

Visit Robert Strong?s home page to get more about this topic Get more info here and request his newsletter.

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  • Article Spinning The Best Approach To Bum Marketing Success Article spinning can be a powerful way to begin distributing unique content to the article publication sites or even to construct your own content rich website. For anybody who have no idea just what article spinning is, article spinning is the process of making articles which when inserted right into a program or perhaps an online article submitting service, can generate distinct variations of the article. This helps to do away with any kind of concerns associated with duplicate content material....

Source: http://blog.onewaylinksite.com/just-starting-out-with-article-marketing-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

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