KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asia will receive a stockpile of 500,000 courses of H1N1 flu drugs by April next year to supplement any shortfall in the region, an official with a Japanese donor agency said on Tuesday. The $18 million stockpile is funded by the Japan Trust Fund and is a joint initiative by Japan and the Asia-Europe Meeting, an ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Confirmed cases of H1N1 swine flu infection in Germany have more than doubled in the past week, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said. "We now have more than 15,000 reported new cases per week -- and those are just the ones confirmed in the laboratory," the RKI's Gerard Krause told ZDF television on Monday ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regular exercise may help reduce the misery of the flu by boosting the immune system's response to the virus, a study in mice hints. Studies have suggested that people who exercise moderately suffer fewer and less severe colds and flu infections than couch potatoes do -- while exhausting workouts may increase a person's vulnerability to ...

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - For the executive who doesn't have time to come down with the flu, a Japanese company has invented a new form of protection -- the anti-H1N1 suit. Menswear company Haruyama Trading claims the suit can protect wearers from the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, as it is coated with titanium dioxide, a chemical commonly used ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Thursday it was looking into an unpublished Canadian study indicating that a seasonal flu shot could increase the risk of catching the H1N1 virus. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO's initiative for vaccine research, said no other researchers had presented similar findings and it could be a "study bias," although the ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death rate from the pandemic H1N1 swine flu is likely lower than earlier estimates, an expert in infectious diseases said on Wednesday. New estimates suggest that the death rate compares to a moderate year of seasonal influenza, said Dr Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University. "It's mildest in kids. That's one of the really good pieces ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - They may want votes, but some Japanese election candidates have been cutting back on handshakes on the campaign trail as the new flu virus reaches epidemic proportions in Japan. The country has confirmed three deaths from the H1N1 influenza virus, and the health minister said Wednesday a rise in cases meant the new flu had spread more than ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Healthy adults are likely to fare better during the flu season by getting a flu shot than by depending on antiviral drugs to make them feel better, new research from the UK shows. The research team headed by Dr. Jane Burch found that Tamiflu (oseltamivir), a flu drug made by Swiss-based Roche, and Relenza (zanamivir), made ...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Frequent handwashing and the wearing of face masks at home can help reduce the transmission of influenza viruses within the household if the measures are implemented in good time, a study in Hong Kong has found. The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are seen as important as patients may need to be quarantined at ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Fans attending one of the world's biggest heavy metal festivals in Germany were asked on Thursday to avoid "hugging, kissing on the cheek, and shaking hands" lest they spread the H1N1 influenza. On its website, the health ministry of Germany's northern Schleswig-Holstein region optimistically advised revelers to restrain from any such sociable behavior so as to ...