The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Rare flu-like virus on the rise in US Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:10 AM PDT  A rare virus causes respiratory symptoms that can be particularly dangerous to children. — AFP pic The culprit is human enterovirus 68 (HEV68), and its respiratory symptoms can be particularly dangerous to children, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In six separate clusters of the virus that showed up worldwide, patients commonly experienced cough, difficulty breathing and wheezing. The highest number of cases were found in Japan, where local public health authorities reported more than 120 cases last year. However, the CDC said it could only confirm clinical data for 11 of those patients, all children, one of whom died. The Philippines had 21 cases in late 2008 and early 2009, causing two deaths, the CDC said. Other cases surfaced in the Netherlands and the US states of Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, for 95 total confirmed cases over two years. The virus was first discovered in four children who were sick with pneumonia in California in 1962, but subsequent incidences have been rare and sporadic, according to the CDC. "Identification of a large number of patients with HEV68 respiratory disease detected during a single season, such as described in this report, is a recent phenomenon," it added. "Whether this increase in recognized cases is attributable to improved diagnostics or whether the clusters themselves represent an emergence of the pathogen is unknown." The CDC said its report aimed to highlight HEV68 as "an increasingly recognised cause of respiratory illness" and urged clinicians to report cases of unexplained respiratory illness to public health authorities. Human enterovirus is closely related to human rhinovirus, which causes the common cold. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| Nestle ad first to pitch at canine customers Posted: 02 Oct 2011 09:18 PM PDT ZURICH, Oct 3 — Nestle, one of the world's biggest makers of pet food has launched the first television commercial pitched to grab the attention of dogs.
Nestle asked experts in pet behaviour in the United States to research what would appeal to dogs, and used the results to create the 23-second commercial for its Beneful dog food brand. The advert, to be screened on Austrian television this week, features a tone similar to a dog whistle, which humans can barely hear, as well as an audible "squeak" like the sound dogs' toys make, and a high-pitched "ping". "So delicious, so healthy, so happy," ends the commercial in German, which features a dog pricking up its ears. "The television commercial aims to reach both the pet and the owner, supporting the special one-to-one relationship between them," said Xavier Perez, brand manager of Beneful for Europe. Nestle said in a statement that the commercial follows an award-winning campaign in Germany that featured "sniffable" posters to attract dogs. Nestle's Petcare division reported first-half sales of 4.8 billion Swiss francs (RM16.9 billion), accounting for almost 12 per cent of revenue at the world's biggest food group. It competes with Mars, maker of the Pedigree dog food brand. — Reuters |
"Dogs' hearing is twice as sharp as humans," said Georg Sanders, a nutrition expert at Nestle Purina PetCare in Germany of the | You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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