Flu precaution: Charlotte hospitals ban visits by children

Starting Thursday, Charlotte-area hospitals will ban visits by children under 18 as a way to reduce the spread of flu to patients. | 09/29/09 13:56:08 By - Karen Garloch

Sebelius: Swine flu vaccine will be available in October

The first doses of vaccine for the H1N1 flu virus will be available the first week of October, federal officials said Thursday, with millions more shipped every week after that. | 09/24/09 16:43:20 By - Steven Thomma

Etiquette for swine flu sneezes

You�re about to sneeze. Quick! What should you do? The conventional wisdom seems to be that you raise your upper arm to cover your nose and mouth, a maneuver also known as the "Dracula sneeze." | 09/24/09 12:53:07 By - Tim Engle

H1N1 swine flu takes young mother

Melissia McDaniel made plans to give the baby she was carrying to a couple who would provide a good home. What she never planned for was getting the H1N1 virus. McDaniel, 29, of Modesto, died last Wednesday, six weeks after giving birth to a 7-pound, 3-ounce girl. | 09/02/09 15:01:09 By - Ken Carlson

Another flu problem: lack of paid sick days bringing sick workers to work

Health officials are urging businesses to keep sick employees home this fall to control the spread of swine flu. But for many San Joaquin Valley workers, a sick day is a day without wages. | 08/31/09 18:08:20 By - Barbara Anderson

South Carolina brace for school and swine flu

With the swine flu virus hanging on through the heat of summer, health officials are preparing for a spike of cases after schools open in August and for the possibility of providing immunizations through the schools in the fall. | 07/30/09 16:06:57 By - Joey Holleman

Swine flu spreading in Southern Hemisphere

As the number of diagnosed cases of swine flu recedes in the Northern Hemisphere, several countries in the Southern Hemisphere are now struggling with how to respond to the H1N1 virus. | 07/01/09 16:25:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Swine flu spreading at two Florida prisons

Thirteen female inmates in the women's dorm at the Homestead Correctional Institute have been confirmed with swine flu (H1N1), and one has been hospitalized, health officials said Friday. Six others at a detention facility in West Dade have confirmed cases of the disease. | 06/29/09 19:53:55 By - Fred Tasker

Medical conditions may increase H1N1 flu's potency

As the numbers of swine flu cases increase nationally, scientists say underlying medical conditions such as heart or lung problems, asthma and obesity have been linked to serious infections. | 06/25/09 07:56:21 By - Bill Lindelof and Loretta Kalb

Huckster: To avert swine flu, try my shampoo

Worried about swine flu? You could try Cold Booster Plus Formula, which claims to eliminate flu viruses from your body within hours � with just one capsule. Or Silver Shampoo to wash the virus out of your hair. That�s the kind of stuff the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been finding on the Internet since the swine flu pandemic began. | 06/21/09 13:15:19 By - By Alan Bavley

Mexico arrests Gulf cartel kingpin at Cancun resort

Most vacationers to Mexico's coastal resort towns prefer not to be bothered. They might turn off their cellphones and shun nightly newscasts to escape into beach days that blur into one another. But lately, the reality of the nation's brutal drug war keeps intruding. | 06/15/09 17:19:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

H1N1 flu fears cuts short China trip for Florida students

Nine students and a teacher from South Florida who traveled to China for an educational tour have instead been quarantined in Beijing over swine flu fears. | 06/12/09 07:08:16 By - David Smiley

Mexico City returns to normal as swine flu restrictions fade

Mexico City rubbed its eyes Wednesday morning, emerging from a five-day economic shutdown that authorities ordered to contain the swine flu — bringing a curious calm to one of the world's most frenetic capitals. Men and women in suits walked down city streets to work as offices reopened. Street vendors unfolded tables and chairs on sidewalks. The next wave comes Thursday, when schools reopen. | 05/06/09 19:42:42 By - Sara Miller Llana

With flu fizzling, health experts rethink school closures

With more data suggesting the swine flu outbreak may not be as deadly as first feared, U.S. health officials are reconsidering their earlier advice on when schools should be closed over health concerns about the virus. | 05/04/09 18:14:00 By - Tony Pugh

Swine flu will likely subside during summer

Here's the good news: The swine flu that is busy spreading across the globe may soon be headed for a summer vacation. The bad news: There's a distinct possibility it could return with a vengeance in the fall. | 05/04/09 16:10:34 By - Alan Bavley

Fort Worth oilman, 98, remembers heavy toll of 1918 flu

Given his age, H. Byran Poff figures he has seen just about everything that can happen to mankind. Fire. Famine. Floods. Flu. The last of those is nothing new. | 05/04/09 14:28:17 By - David Casstevens

Prison visits suspended in California over N1H1 flu fears

Officials took the action Sunday after an inmate in Imperial County came down with a suspected case of the flu. The suspension affects the state's 33 adult prisons and its six youth facilities. | 05/03/09 23:22:50 By - Loretta Kalb

Researchers can't agree on severity of swine flu outbreak

More than a month into the swine flu outbreak that has now affected 13 countries, medical experts are wondering aloud whether the contagious disease will ever become the deadly pandemic that everyone fears. With at least 143 infections now confirmed in 23 states, the H1N1 virus continues to spread via person-to-person transmission. But they overwhelmingly have been mild. | 05/01/09 19:33:00 By - Tony Pugh

Scientists trace ancestry of swine flu virus to 1998 outbreak

The new H1N1 influenza virus that continues to spread through the U.S. has ancestry in a swine flu outbreak that first struck a North Carolina hog farm more than 10 years ago, according to scientists studying the strain's genetic makeup. | 05/01/09 19:00:42 By - Barbara Barrett

Researchers can't agree on severity of swine flu outbreak

Despite rapid spread, Texas officials call flu outbreak 'mild'

Swine flu was Topic A at a gathering of more than 2,000 Texas doctors attending the annual conference of the Texas Medical Association. "So far, it's looking like this is going to be not too serious,� said Dr. Edward Sherwood, who chairs the TMA's infectious disease committee. | 05/01/09 18:13:59 By - Dave Montgomery

Swine flu worries have Newberry, S.C. longing for normalcy

On a day when state health officials cautiously declared the swine flu an epidemic in South Carolina, county schools superintendent Bennie Bennett was trying to convince a Bishopville baseball team it was safe to play in Newberry. But after nonstop media coverage following a group of private school students' trip to Cancun, Mexico, two weeks ago, fears of the disease had grown so much that janitors wearing surgical masks spent the afternoon wiping down third-grade classrooms in Newberry with nonacidic disinfectant bathroom cleaner � even though no students there were infected. | 05/01/09 07:30:34 By - Adam Beam

Company warned officials of flu 18 days before alert was issued

A Washington state biosurveillance firm raised the first warning about a possible outbreak of swine flu in Mexico more than two weeks before the World Health Organization offered its initial alert about a public health emergency of international concern. | 04/30/09 18:53:00 By - Les Blumenthal

Biden's flu remarks create headache for White House

Vice President Joe Biden, already known for his gaffes, pulled a doozy on Thursday. The slip and the rush to damage control were the latest in a long line of misstatements, mistakes and outright gaffes that have marked Biden's career. | 04/30/09 18:18:00 By - Steven Thomma

Mexico City's citizens are uncharacteristically shaken by flu outbreak

Mexico's capital is not easily rattled: Its 20 million or so residents regularly shrug off crime, corruption, drought, gridlock, overcrowding, and bad air. But the outbreak of swine flu, which has killed an estimated 176 people nationwide, is different. | 04/30/09 17:23:00 By - Jonathan Roeder

Kentucky woman on Ga. trip diagnosed with swine flu

A 30-year-old woman from the Bowling Green area has been hospitalized in Georgia with swine flu, Kentucky health officials confirmed Thursday. | 04/30/09 14:23:24 By - Jim Warren

LIVE VIDEO: CDC, Cabinet officials take questions on flu

The head of the CDC and the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security take questions from the public in a live Webcast. | 04/30/09 13:42:11 By -

What to call it? For pork council, certainly not 'swine flu'

The N.C. Pork Council would prefer you not call it "swine flu." Following the lead of their national organization, they've suggested "North American influenza." | 04/29/09 15:07:28 By - Ryan Teague Beckwith

Flu panic sweeps Texas; Fort Worth orders schools closed

The decision came after county health officials said four children were suspected of having been infected with the swine flu virus — a diagnosis that was later confirmed in one of the students. Officials also urged parents to keep children away from daycare centers, movies theaters, and restaurants. Earlier, Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared a disaster. | 04/29/09 23:28:39 By - Steve Campbell and Eva-Marie Ayala

Life's unfair: It's called swine flu, but no pigs are sick

Officialdom can say "North American flu" or the catchy H1N1 all it wants, but the term "swine flu" hangs on like mud on a snout — kicking up trade embargoes and an unfounded fear of pork chops. The reaction has confounded the $15 billion pork industry, which noted that what the world has dubbed swine flu has yet to be detected in a single pig anywhere in the world. | 04/29/09 08:12:41 By - Scott Canon

School flu closings put working parents in a bind

President Barack Obama, at the behest of public-health officials, is recommending that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "strongly consider temporarily closing so we can be as safe as possible." | 04/29/09 18:48:00 By - Alexandra Marks and Sara Miller Llana 5/8

Why not a fist bump? Doctor says elbow greeting fights flu

Ban the handshake — that's Dr. Joe Soler's advice for avoiding swine flu, which appears to be spreading fast in certain areas of the United States, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. When Soler and his colleagues greet patients at Pinnacle Urgent Care, 315 75th St. W., they look like they are doing a do-si-do as they tap their elbows to say hello. | 04/29/09 15:34:53 By - Donna Wright

Texas cancels high school athletics as flu cases grow to 16

Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged calm at a news conference Wednesday morning even as state officials postponed athletic events until May 11 in hopes of preventing the spread of the flu virus. The news came after the CDC reported the death of a Mexican child and said they two more people were critically ill. | 04/29/09 12:56:06 By - Dave Montgomery and Alex Branch

Q&A: The facts and fiction about swine flu

Here are some questions and answers about the science of swine flu — the H1N1 virus that's sweeping the world. | 04/29/09 15:45:00 By - Robert S. Boyd

Confirmed flu cases in Texas rise to 16

State officials ratched up their response to the swine flu outbreak Wednesday, with the governor declaring a disaster in Texas and the state acquiring more antiviral medication. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grew to 16 in Texas, . | 04/29/09 12:13:24 By -

World health officials urge governments to prepare for pandemic

The global threat from the swine flu outbreak reached its highest level yet on Wednesday as the World Health Organization urged government, business and health officials to start planning in earnest for a pandemic, which now appears unavoidable. | 04/29/09 18:58:00 By - Tony Pugh

Swine flu kills toddler in Texas, U.S. confirms 91 cases

The death of a 23-month-old child in Texas is the first U.S. swine flu fatality, federal health officials announced Wednesday. At the White House, President Barack Obama addressed the rising health issue. | 04/29/09 12:15:06 By - Staff and wire reports

Sacramento scientists join race to decode new swine flu strain

Jacky Bruglia is on the front lines in the battle against a baffling new strain of influenza, and she takes an odd delight in being part of what she calls "something big." | 04/29/09 12:04:17 By - Bobby Caina Calvan

First U.S. death from swine flu reported in Texas

The first fatality is a 23-month-old child, but no other details of the child's illness or death were immediately available. With the number of swine flu cases jumping in the U.S. from 45 to 64 on Tuesday, federal health officials had said it was only a matter of time before the highly contagious disease claimed its first American fatality. | 04/28/09 19:17:00 By - Tony Pugh and William Douglas

Flu Rx? Russia blocks U.S. pork, Costa Rica bars kissing

The government of Cuba suspended flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours, Russia banned imported pork from at least 11 U.S. states and medical help lines in Europe were inundated, as the world reacted apprehensively Tuesday to the swine flu outbreak. | 04/28/09 18:48:00 By - Tyler Bridges

Swine flu outbreaks have travelers rethinking vacations

As more swine flu cases were reported Monday from Mexico to Spain and New York to New Zealand, cruise lines pondered itineraries, airlines shifted refund policies and South Florida travelers debated canceling vacations. The death toll in Mexico rose to 159, and the U.S. State Department advised Americans to defer all nonessential travel there. | 04/28/09 06:57:50 By - Jane Wooldridge

Swine flu could impact California's economic recovery

The last thing California's weak economy needed was a swine flu outbreak flaring up in Mexico. Although substantial harm seemed unlikely Monday, the outbreak could do some economic damage to California agriculture, tourism and international trade. | 04/28/09 06:40:37 By - Dale Kasler

N. Carolina doctors poised to act fast on swine flu

Though a Carolinas case hasn't been reported, Mecklenburg's top health official plans to issue a letter this morning advising doctors and hospitals to take no chances and treat suspected swine flu patients aggressively with anti-viral medication. | 04/27/09 07:10:31 By - Christopher D. Kirkpatrick

Students from S. Carolina school tested for swine flu

An independent school in Newberry, S.C. closed Monday after 13 students and three chaperones returned from a trip to Cancun, Mexico with flu-like symptoms. All of the students on the trip, plus two others who did not go but have since become ill, have been tested for the swine flu. | 04/27/09 13:40:00 By - Adam Beam

Swine flu outbreak 'not a cause for alarm,' Obama says

Amid warnings from Europe against travel to the U.S., President Barack Obama worked Monday to assure the nation, and perhaps the world, that an outbreak of swine flu is a cause for concern but not alarm. | 04/27/09 14:12:00 By - Steven Thomma

Flu-struck Mexico braces for tourist cancellations

Europeans Monday were told to avoid travel to Mexico unless essential. The biggest tour operators in Germany and Japan canceled all trips to Mexico. Asian countries with memories of the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) scare banned Mexican pork imports. And several U.S. and Mexican airlines have waived fees for passengers wanting to change their travel dates. | 04/27/09 17:56:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

Flu outbreak will be early test for Sebelius at HHS

Overhauling health care was going to be tough enough for Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. However, the growing scare over swine flu is likely to command her attention, if, as expected, the Senate on Tuesday confirms her as secretary Health and Human Services, the final vacancy in President Barack Obama's Cabinet. | 04/27/09 20:10:00 By - David Goldstein

At swine flu's epicenter, Mexico works to remain calm

Mexico City streets that normally are choked with traffic were free flowing over the weekend. Bars and churches were shut, and parks were empty as the city of 20 million takes precautions against the new outbreak of swine flu. | 04/26/09 18:17:00 By - Sara Miller Llana

CDC expects more swine flu will be found in U.S.

U.S. officials Sunday declared the rapid spread of swine flu to be a public health emergency and freed up 12.5 million doses of antiviral medication to help fight the disease, which has now infected 20 people in five states. In Mexico, where the outbreak originated, nearly 90 people have died and thousands of others have become ill from swine flu in the last several weeks. | 04/26/09 17:38:00 By - Tony Pugh

Bird flu remains a threat to humans, U.N. says

A handful of new human fatalities from bird flu underscore that the H5N1 virus has become entrenched in some countries, such as China, and that it still could mutate and flare into a global pandemic, U.N. officials said Wednesday. | 02/18/09 15:38:00 By - Tim Johnson