briefs

(MCT)-An influenza epidemic is under way nationwide, complicated by concerns involving the… (MCT)-An influenza epidemic is under way nationwide, complicated by concerns involving the vaccine and a key medication used to fight the illness.

“We call it a seasonal epidemic,” said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bresee said it is impossible to tell whether this winter’s bout with the infection will be worse – or milder – than previous years because it takes the CDC months to calculate the number of hospitalizations and deaths. Few corners of the country have been left unscathed by the highly contagious respiratory illness, which has already resulted in fatalities in New York state.

A flu epidemic is determined through a variety of statistical measures and never as a result of a direct head count, explained Dr. Gary Leonardi, chief of virology at Nassau University Medical Center, because only a fraction of people affected by the flu are treated by physicians. To declare an epidemic, flu trackers examine hospitalizations, emergency room admissions and number of deaths – factors that can take months to compile.

Two children from upstate New York have died, and the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines, is strongly urging vaccination, especially for children. All 60 counties in New York have experienced high levels of flu activity since the beginning of the year.

“It’s tragic, but not unusual,” Bresee said, referring to the deaths of a 7-month-old in Monroe County, N.Y., and a 7-year-old in Orange, N.Y. “We monitor pediatric deaths and receive reports about them from the states. This year the number of deaths we’re seeing is relatively low compared with previous years, but we’re seeing increasing disease nationally.”

Annually, an estimated 200,000 people are hospitalized for influenza and 36,000 die.

Even though the number of flu-related deaths in children is lower than usual so far, adult flu mortality nationwide is higher than it has been in the past two years. And the picture is further complicated by a mismatch between certain circulating flu viruses and those covered by the vaccine. About half of all flu cases occurring this season are caused by viruses not covered by the vaccine.

Global health officials, including those from the CDC, choose the vaccine strains nearly a year in advance, which means prognostications can sometimes prove inaccurate. -By Delthia Ricks, Newsday

(MCT) WASHINGTON-Scientists and university leaders are seeking $500 million in emergency spending for basic research in the physical sciences, an investment they say will save jobs, the economy and the nation’s standing in the international scientific community.

In visits to congressional offices this week, academic leaders said they were shocked to discover that the spending bill Congress passed in December left out more than half a billion dollars in basic research money that President Bush had requested and lawmakers said they supported.

“It’s an attention-deficit disorder in a way,” said Duke University President Richard Brodhead. “In the end, the attention went away and something else took its place.”

Cut from the congressional bill were funds for national laboratories, an international nuclear fusion program, high-energy physics research and nanotechnology. The result, the academic leaders said, has been a cut in research hours, the end of some research programs that depended on federal grants and delays in the construction of laboratories.

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman warned Congress this month that more than 500 scientists and technicians could lose their jobs or their university support as a result of the cutbacks. Another 500 won’t be hired, he said.

The research affects projects as massive as an international high-energy physics lab in Europe and as local as a few hundred pine trees routinely sprayed with carbon dioxide in a forest near Duke University.

In Menlo Park, Calif., the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center plans to lay off 225 workers. Another 200 layoffs are expected at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, some 40 workers may be reassigned.

Nationally, reduced funding for grants in basic energy science could slow research in fusion, hydrogen production, solar energy and thermoelectronics, Bodman said.

University leaders hope Congress will include $500 million for research in an emergency supplemental bill that is expected to pass this spring. About $300 million of that would go to the Department of Energy, while the rest would go to the National Science Foundation. -By Barbara Barrett, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) SAN FRANCISCO-Speculation on Yahoo Inc.’s anyone-but-Microsoft options intensified Wednesday amid reports that the company was talking to News Corp.-and that Google Inc. is losing interest in a possible alliance.

Yahoo this week formally rejected Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid to buy the Internet company. But Microsoft has said it reserves the right to pursue other options, a stance analysts believe would mean either raising its price or mounting a hostile-takeover campaign.

As the two tech titans harden their positions, Yahoo is reportedly discussing a possible deal with News Corp. involving an alliance between the Internet company and the media giant’s Fox Interactive Media unit, which includes MySpace, according to two influential tech industry blogs.

A report by the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, also said the two sides were discussing a deal, one that would give News Corp. a 20 percent stake in Yahoo. News Corp. is the owner of both the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.

Microsoft shares were trading up 2.2 percent to $28.96 by late afternoon, while Yahoo was up 0.9 percent at $29.85.

Citing unnamed sources, a posting on the Silicon Alley Insider blog described talks about a deal in which News Corp. would take a major equity stake in Yahoo, which would then assume control of News Corp.’s MySpace and other Fox Interactive Media properties. That report also cited the possibility of News Corp. arranging a cash infusion for Yahoo as well.

Another blog, TechCrunch, which also cited an unnamed source, gave a similar account of the discussions between the companies, adding that they were trying to reach agreement in the next couple days.

In the days following Microsoft’s move to acquire Yahoo, News Corp. has said that it is not interested in making a rival bid.

Meanwhile, Internet-search market leader Google Inc., which came out publicly against Microsoft’s proposal, has lost interest in pursuing a search outsourcing deal with Yahoo, according to a Wall Street Journal report from earlier Wednesday.

Analysts have speculated about a Yahoo-Google alliance as a way for Google to thwart Microsoft’s bid, although some also said such a deal would likely run into antitrust hurdles. -By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch