New York City is up to its ears in flu cases. This state of things worries the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that urges to pass a bill allowing pharmacists to give flu and pneumonia shots.

Previous work from this group of scientists, led by Tracy Hussell at Imperial College, London, showed that recovery from flu infection left mice unusually vulnerable to infection with pneumonia-causing bacteria.

Critically ill patients who need a ventilator to breathe face a high risk of pneumonia. The lung infection, however, is exceedingly difficult to diagnose because a patient's underlying condition often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia's symptoms – a reality that can delay appropriate antibiotic treatment.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have identified a key protein target that may be a crucial factor in the development of a vaccine to prevent and new therapies to treat pneumonia, the leading killer of children worldwide.

Consistent alcohol consumption can impair immunity functions following surgery.

A new rodent study has found that chronic drinking can result in a severe form of pneumonia following surgery.

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADLS), today announced positive results from Trial CL-05, the second of two pivotal phase III clinical trials designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of cethromycin, a novel once-a-day oral antibiotic for the treatment of mild-to-moderate community acquired pneumonia (CAP), the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Although flu and pneumonia can be lethal for cancer patients, more than one quarter of patients undergoing radiation therapy are not complying with national guidelines to be vaccinated against these potentially life-threatening yet preventable illnesses, according to a study presented October 28, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

When elderly nursing home residents contract pneumonia, it is a blow to their already fragile health. Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and colleagues report that maintaining normal serum zinc concentration in the blood may help reduce the risk of pneumonia development in that population.

Immune cells known as neutrophils produce reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs) to combat infection with microbes that can cause diseases such as pneumonia.

Among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia, those who had previously received the pneumococcal vaccine had a lower risk of death and admission to the intensive care unit than patients who were not vaccinated, according to a report in the Oct. 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Tiny new laboratory tools termed microfluidic devices are helping biomedical researchers to better understand the physiological and chemical processes underlying high blood pressure, stroke, sickle cell disease and other disorders, according to an article scheduled for the Sept.10 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS’ weekly newsmagazine.

A national survey of state immunization program managers reveals gaps in coverage for the current vaccine financing system, suggesting that many underinsured children may not receive recommended vaccinations, such as for pneumonia and meningitis, according to a report in the August 8 issue of JAMA.