There is a serious outbreak of Ebola fever underway in Uganda. Reuters reports there are 101 suspected cases of Ebola with hundreds more being monitored. 22 people have died so far. 11 health workers are part of the group of people infected with the Ebola virus.

Uganda has 101 suspected cases of Ebola fever and hundreds more people being closely monitored, officials said on Friday, as fear grew in Uganda and neighbouring countries that the deadly virus might spread.

Twenty two people have so far died of the fever and Minister of State for primary health-care Dr. Emmanuel Otaala told journalists 11 health workers have fallen sick.

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Eventually the terrible wildfires in California will be brought under control but even when the fires are contained there is still ash and smoke to worry about. MercuryNews.com reports that hospitals do have people in emergency rooms with respiratory problems.

At the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles where fires were burning, 22 people arrived at the emergency room complaining of respiratory problems, most likely from the smoke. At least two stayed overnight, hospital spokeswoman Bhavna Mistry said.

Sixteen patients, including four firefighters, were treated for burns at the University of California San Diego Medical Center. Of those, five also suffered from smoke inhalation.

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A FDA panel has warned that over-the-counter (OTC) cold and cough medicines do not work in children and that they should not be used in children less than six years old. The medicines the FDA Panel is warning about includes decongestants, antihistamines and antitussives but not expectorants. Over a dozen cold products for infants were recently pulled off store shelves. UPI reports that the panel has voted 13 to 9 to also ban cold medicines targeted at kids 2 to 5 years old. However, products for kids aged 2 to 5 years old have not been banned by the FDA.

A CNN article says that one member of the panel - the patient representative - was concerned that if there were no child drugs available then parents would use adult medications instead.

While the panel overwhelmingly said the products haven't been proven to work in children 11 and younger, the panel, by a vote of 15 to 7, stopped short of recommending the products not be used at all in older children.

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The BBC reports that a new blood test can identify Alzheimer's six years before symptoms of the disease start to show. The article says the blood test has a 90% accuracy

The test identifies changes in a handful of proteins that cells use to convey messages to one another.

The US researchers found it could indicate who had Alzheimer's, as well as who was likely to develop the condition, with 90% accuracy.

The work, led by Stanford University, features in Nature Medicine.

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Despite serious efforts to control the deadly H5N1 virus outbreaks continue. Humans also continue to catch and die from the virus although the much feared pandemic has not occured. Reuters collected these facts containg information from the OIE, WHO and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 30 countries have reported outbreaks in the past year, in most cases involving wild birds such as swans.

The virus has killed at least 201 people since 2003, according to the WHO. Countries with confirmed human deaths are: Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

In total, the virus is known to have infected 329 people since 2003, according to the WHO. Many of the dead are children and young adults.

The WHO says that Vietnam and Indonesia have the highest number of cases, accounting for 132 of the total deaths.

The H5N1 virus is not new to science and was responsible for an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Scotland in 1959. Britain confirmed new cases in birds in Scotland in April 2006 and in eastern England in February 2007.

H5N1 is not the only bird flu virus. There are numerous strains. For example, an outbreak in 2003 of the H7N7 bird flu virus in the Netherlands led to the destruction of more than 30 million birds, around a third of the country's poultry stock. About 2.7 million were destroyed in Belgium and around 400,000 in Germany. In the Netherlands, 89 people were infected with the H7N7 virus, of whom one (a veterinarian) died.

The H5N1 virus made the first known jump into humans in Hong Kong in 1997, infecting 18 people and killing six of them. The government ordered the immediate culling of the territory's entire poultry flock, ending the outbreak.

Symptoms of bird flu in humans have ranged from typical influenza-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches, to eye inflammations (conjunctivitis), pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, and other severe and life-threatening complications.

The latest bird flu death to occur was a 21-year-old West Jakarta shop attendant. This person died last Friday. 86 people have now died from bird flu (h5n1) in Indonesia.

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The BBC reports that a new blood test that measures the amount of a protein called RBP4 in the blood may help determine the amount of fat around a person's internal organs. The scientists doing the research are hopeful that cutting RBP4 may have health benefits.

The researchers believe that measuring RBP4 would potentially be an effective way to assess body fat, and that treatment to cut levels of the protein might also have health benefits.

In previous work, they showed that cutting RBP4 levels in obese mice helped the animals to make better use of the hormone insulin - and thus reduce their risk of diabetes.

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There was some very unfortunate news earlier this week when Merck reported that it was halting its AIDS vaccine test because tests showed the vaccine was not working - people were still getting infected with the HIV virus.

Merck & Co. said Friday that it is ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the study, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.

It was a high-profile failure in the daunting quest to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS. Merck's vaccine was the farthest along, considered the most promising and was closely watched by experts in the field.

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KPHO Phoenix has a developing story about a local boy who was killed by a deadly amoeba he is believed to have picked up while swimming in Lake Havasu.

A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain.

Aaron Evans died Sept. 17 of Naegleria fowleri, an organism doctors said he probably picked up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu.

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ABC reports that microchips already approved for human and pet use have induced tumors in lab mice and rats. The FDA apparently decided the public didn't need this information at the time they approved the microchips.

Those chips are now being implanted in some people, especially Alzheimer's patients, and encoded with their medical records. The Food and Drug Administration called the microchip one of 2005's top innovative technologies.

The microchips have been implanted in hundreds of people like Ida Frankel, who has Alzheimer's disease. If she gets lost and ends up in a hospital, doctors can scan her arm and get all of her medical records.

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WebMD reports on a possible link between microwaved popcorn and lung disease. The potential problem is a chemical in the popcorn called diacetyl that may be very dangerous when inhaled. Lung problems have been diagnosed in workers at factories where microwave popcorn is made. This particular article also discusses a case involving a non-worker who fell ill with lung problems. This person ate two or more bags of microwaved popcorn a day.

It's a rare disease, first seen in 1985 in workers in food-flavor factories. In 2002, the disease was seen in workers making microwave popcorn -- in particular, those exposed to a buttery-tasting chemical called diacetyl. There have been many other reports since then, with at least three deaths and many patients awaiting lung transplants.

But Rose's patient had never been exposed to food-flavoring fumes. His only exposure was to the two or more bags of microwave popcorn he consumed every day.

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