CDC works very closely with state and local officials in areas where human cases of new H1N1 flu infections have been identified. CDC has deployed staff to several states to assist with the investigation of the impact of the novel H1N1 influenza, including the assessment of the severity of illness, how easily the virus spreads, and the amount of time people may be infectious. In states where EpiAid teams have been deployed, many epidemiological activities are taking place or planned including:

• Active surveillance in the counties where infections in humans have been identified;
• Studies of health care workers who were exposed to patients infected with the virus to see if they became infected;
• Studies of households and other contacts of people who were confirmed to have been infected to see if they became infected; and
• Study to see how long a person with the virus infection sheds the virus.

This virus was originally referred to as “swine flu” because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes in this new virus were very similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America. But further study has shown that this new virus is very different from what normally circulates in North American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and avian genes and human genes. Scientists call this a “quadruple reassortant” virus.

Spread of H1N1 (swine) flu can occur in two ways:

• Through contact with infected pigs or environments contaminated with swine flu viruses.
• Through contact with a person with H1N1 (swine) flu. Human-to-human spread of H1N1 (swine) flu has been documented also and is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu. Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

If you live in areas where people have been identified with new H1N1 flu and become ill with influenza-like symptoms, including fever, body aches, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people, except to seek medical care. If you have severe illness or you are at high risk for flu complications, contact your health care provider or seek medical care. Your health care provider will determine whether flu testing or treatment is needed.

Treatment for any neck condition is recommended as soon as possible to minimize the danger of further aggravation. The following is a list of only some of the conditions that may cause neck pain pillow and is not a substitute for a visit to your doctor:

• Radiculopathy – A pinched nerve, often from a herniated, or slipped, disk. This causes pain down the arm that’s often described as an electrical feeling. Here is the back pain treatment.
• Myofascial Pain - Generally an aching pain in muscles that tends to be associated with poor posture, sitting at a computer or other job-related tasks. Patients can become sore in different parts of the body like the neck and arms, and often patients report they have difficulty sleeping or feeling restored from sleep.
• Spinal Stenosis - A narrowing of the nerve openings either around the spinal cord or nerve roots that can cause symptoms similar to a pinched nerve. The pain is described either as an aching or an electrical feeling down the arm.
• Tendon, Ligament and Soft Tissue Pain – Localized pain when an area is stretched or its muscles are overused. This results in tenderness.
• Spinal Instability – Increased motion between vertebra, usually resulting from an injury. The pain typically feels like tingling in the neck or arms.
• Non-Spinal Causes of Neck Pain – Pain imitating a neck injury, but from another cause. Shoulder and elbow injuries and gall bladder disease are examples of problems that can refer pain to the neck area.
• Repetitive Strain Injury – An injury that occurs from a chronically used part of the body, either in a normal or abnormal way. These problems are often found in people who sit at desks or work at computers.
• Orthopedic pillow, a pillow designed to correct body positioning in bed or while lying in any other surface. Its design conforms to orthopedic guidelines to ensure the right placement and support of one or more specific parts of the body to provide safe and healthy rest to the sleeper.

For more information, you can go http://www.coreproducts.com .

There has been a wave of recent attention given to the security concerns that surround the business of online shopping. This is in large part due to a report released by an online brand management company, Mark Monitor’s, whose research found that the majority of online drug retail websites operate without proper credentials and lack e-commerce security features..
The findings, which have prompted a revival in interest regarding web security and brand protection, revealed the following. Of the nearly 3,200 online pharmacies monitored by the researchers, only four were accredited as Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS), a credential created by the pharmaceutical industry to assure consumers that an online pharmacy can be trusted.
They also found that 10 percent of the pharmacies monitored in the study stated that prescriptions weren’t necessary for purchasing drugs at their sites.
More than 50 percent of the sites studied, the report noted, do not secure customer information.
A majority of the sites do not use SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption, it said, and in more than 20 percent of post-purchase e-mails captured by the researchers, unencrypted links to customer information were found.
There is also evidence in the study that the drugs being dispensed at the sites are of inferior quality.
So what does all this mean? Plainly speaking, Mark Monitor has told us something that we already knew existed, namely illegal online operators. They have told us that dubious pharmacies abound on the Internet, and they’re posing a threat to both pharmaceutical companies and consumers. They have simply reaffirmed that the number of websites offering medicines for sale though the internet has increased rapidly in recent years and that some of the medicines sold on websites may be counterfeit, out-of-date, stolen or diluted.
Where do we go from here? Drawing attention to the importance of internet security is always a good thing but one can’t help but wonder whether the money used in the production of the Mark Monitor report may have been better spent in developing security systems to combat the very fraud they are documenting. Many people might say that surely a report is a good thing and not very expensive, I have looked at the findings and conservatively estimate that the report cost a whopping 105,000 to produce.
To produce the report Mark Monitor looked at
3.160 web sites and Over 60 million email abuses
To do this properly it would take the following man power and expense
1 person can monitor 20 web sites per day
Therefore 3,160 = 158 working days
To do this in a month you would need at least 7 people most probably a team of 10 people
To monitor the emails we can conclude that they used either a team with the same amount of people or half that size.
At a standard cost of 40K per year per worker salary and cost of desk. That is 3.3K per month per worker
Therefore a cost of 49.5K for research is not outrageous
To analyse the findings and produce the report a team of between 10 and 15 people would have been needed for a two week period
To analyse and produce the data would cost more as it is a more skilled job therefore we will put a 4.5K per month per worker salary
4.5 x 15 / 2 = 33K
To market the findings a team of 5 people would be needed for a month
Again marketing is more expensive than research so 4.5K per worker per month is not outrageous
So a cost of 22K for marketing is the least to be expected
If done to the level to which they have specified then cost of this report is therefore at least 104.5K .
In my mind it is just terrible that they spend all that on this research which is kind of obvious.
Then there is the countless of pharmaceutical companies that pay for their advice when they could just set up a world wide accrediting service for half the price that would safe guard their businesses and help the consumer.