Sperm dance to calcium's tune en route to egg

FROM headbanging to pirouettes, sperm cells need the right moves to bag the egg. Identifying how sperm switch from one movement to another could lead to better fertility treatments for men, it now seems.

In the journey up the female reproductive tract, sperm cells have to plough through a range of viscous barriers, says Stephen Publicover at the University of Birmingham, UK. To do this they have to adapt their behaviour accordingly.

Broadly speaking, sperm are either activated, swimming forwards in a spiral, or hyperactivated, thrashing wildly - used to enter the egg.

To find out how sperm switch from one stroke to the other, Publicover and his colleagues studied calcium signalling in human sperm cells. Sperm cells appeared to be activated when calcium enters through ion channels in the tail. When calcium is released from organelles inside the neck of the cell into the surrounding cytoplasm, the sperm became hyperactivated.

To verify the finding, the team used drugs such as progesterone to artificially stimulate the movement of calcium within a sperm sample. When they triggered calcium uptake through the tail of the sperm, it stimulated activated movement and the sperm moved along a mucus-filled tube more easily than in a drug-free sample. Similarly, triggering the release of calcium within the neck made the sperm hyperactivated. The work was presented last week at Fertility 2013 in Liverpool, UK.

It is not yet clear what influences calcium movement within the reproductive tract, but varying pH levels throughout may be involved.

The work may have relevance in identifying types of infertility involving sperm switching between movements, says John Parrington at the University of Oxford. "Or for making new types of contraceptive."

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Football: Adebayor included as Africa Cup squads named

JOHANNESBURG: Emmanuel Adebayor will play at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after he was included in Togo's squad as the 16 sides finalised their 23-man squads.

Mahamadou Diarra will meanwhile miss the tournament, and a late-minute change left Brown Ideye thrilled and Nigeria team-mate Raheem Lawal devastated.

It was all part of the drama ahead of the January 19-February 10 tournament that will be played in five South African cities.

Tottenham striker and Togo captain Adebayor said last year he would shun the competition, citing security concerns after being part of the squad attacked in Angola ahead of the 2010 finals.

A player and an official were killed by separatists seeking independence for the oil-rich Cabinda enclave and Adebayor escaped injury by cowering under a bus seat.

As Tottenham, the Togo president and national football officials became involved in the saga, Adebayor refused to reveal his plans, and his inclusion became official only when the 23-man squad was named by coach Didier Six.

Perennial underachievers Togo are in the Rustenburg-based 'group of death' with title favourites Ivory Coast and other former champions Algeria and Tunisia and are given little hope of survival.

Mali, third last year and considered likely quarter-finalists after being drawn with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Niger, suffered a late setback when Fulham midfielder Diarra pulled out injured.

A recurring knee injury failed to heal, meaning the veteran will miss a second consecutive Cup of Nations, although the blow was cushioned by the return of another experienced midfielder, Mohamed Lamine Sissoko.

Turkey-based midfielder Lawal was included in a Nigerian squad leaked to the media a day before the final-squad deadline, only to be replaced by striker Ideye when it was officially announced.

Home-based players have traditionally been ignored by Super Eagles coaches, but Stephen Keshi has chosen six, including goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim and strikers Sunday Mba and Ejike Uzoenyi from Enugu Rangers.

Shock absentees from the 2012 tournament, Nigeria face defending champions Zambia and outsiders Burkina Faso and Ethiopia in Group C and are expected to make the knock-out phase at least.

Debutants Cape Verde made a couple of last-minute changes with injured midfielder Odair Fortes and unavailable striker Ze Luis replaced by Portugal-based pair Platini and Rambe.

Cape Verde face hosts South Africa in the January 19 opening fixture at the 90,000-seat Soccer City stadium in Soweto and also confront former champions Morocco and Angola in the first round.

- AFP/de

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Facebook rolls out Pages Manager Android app for U.S.

People in the U.S. who maintain Facebook Pages can now maintain them via their Android phones and
tablets.

Debuting earlier this month in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the app hit the shores of the U.S. and the U.K. yesterday, according to The Next Web. A Facebook spokesperson told TNW last week that the
Android app would be "rolling out more widely in the coming weeks."

As opposed to personal profiles, Facebook Pages are often used by businesses, organizations, and public figures that have something to sell or promote and want to build up a following of fans or potential customers.

The Facebook Pages Manager Android app offers a variety of features.

You can post new updates and photos and answer user comments. You can reply to private messages sent to your page. You can also receive notices about new activity on your page and see data revealing how many people are checking out your page. You can even manage multiple pages from the app.

Facebook has long offered a similar app for iOS. So it's about time Android users had their own version.

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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

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Oscar Nominations 2013: Full List

"Lincoln" is leading the way to the 2013 Oscars. This morning, the biopic about the 16th president picked up 12 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Steven Spielberg and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" followed close behind with 11 nominations. "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" tied for third place, with eight nominations each.

The Academy also named its eldest and youngest best actress nominees ever. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, is up for best actress along with "Amour" lead Emmanuelle Riva, 85.

See who made the cut below, and weigh in on who you want to win with Oscar.com's My Picks, an interactive and social Oscar ballot that allows you to pick who you think will win in each category. You can compete with your Facebook friends when the Academy Awards air on Feb. 24.

FULL COVERAGE: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Best Picture:

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Lincoln"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Django Unchained"

"Argo"

My Picks: Create an Oscar Ballot and Play With Friends

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

PHOTOS: 2013 Oscar Nominees

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"

David James/Dreamworks/AP

Seth MacFarlane, Emma Stone Discuss Oscar Nominations Watch Video

Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"

Amy Adams, "The Master"

RELATED: Oscar's Likely Winners

Best Director:

David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

Michael Haneke, "Amour"

Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Actor:

Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"

Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress:

Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay:

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Django Unchained"

"Moonrise Kingdom"

"Amour"

"Flight"

Best Adapted Screenplay:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature:

"Frankenweenie"

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"

"Wreck-It Ralph"

"Paranorman"

"Brave"

Best Foreign Feature:

"Amour"

"A Royal Affair"

"Kon-Tiki"

"No"

"War Witch"

Best Visual Effects:

"Life of Pi"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"The Avengers"

"Prometheus"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Cinematography:

"Skyfall"

"Anna Karenina"

"Django Unchained"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

Best Costume Design:

"Anna Karenina"

"Les Miserables"

"Lincoln"

"Mirror Mirror"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature:

"Searching for Sugar Man"

"How to Survive a Plague"

"The Gatekeepers"

"5 Broken Cameras"

"The Invisible War"

Best Documentary Short:

"Open Heart"

"Inocente"

"Redemption"

"Kings Point"

"Mondays at Racine"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Film Editing:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Life of Pi"

"Argo"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

"Hitchcock"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Les Miserables"

Best Music (Original Score):

"Anna Karenina"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Skyfall"

Best Music (Original Song):

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Faecal bacteria cocktail treats superbug infection

Feeding faeces to people with chronic infection can cure them, but who wants to eat poo? A synthetic alternative could provide a more palatable option.

Hospital superbug Clostridium difficile can wreak havoc in the guts of vulnerable people, especially those who have lost some of their protective gut flora as a result of antibiotic use. Once it takes hold, the bacteria can cause nasty diarrhoea and in some cases is fatal. The usual treatment for the infection, which affects over half a million people in the US each year, involves a strong course of antibiotics. But the infection returns in about 20 per cent of cases, and some people become chronically infected.

One treatment appears to be remarkably successful. It involves ingesting the faeces of healthy individuals – either via a tube to the stomach or colon – to help repopulate their guts with so-called good bacteria. This boosts defences against reinfection and unpleasant as it may sound, works in around 90 per cent of cases.

"The faecal transplant is fairly disgusting but it works really well," says Emma Allen-Vercoe at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. The therapy is still a little too disgusting for some infected individuals and doctors, though, she adds.

To get around these issues, Allen-Vercoe, together with Elaine Petrof at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and their colleagues attempted to create an alternative version of the faecal transplant – a concoction that contains only the good gut bacteria found in faeces.

The first step – getting hold of the faeces of a healthy person – was the hardest, says Allen-Vercoe. "We wanted someone with no chronic disease and a good body mass index who doesn't drink, smoke, take drugs and had never been exposed to antibiotics," she says.

The team's closest match was a woman who was born and raised in rural India. The group then set about identifying the bacteria within her faeces, isolating the individual species and attempting to cultivate them.

Culturing bacteria is a tricky process as the bugs do not survive well in lab conditions. So far, Allen-Vercoe's team have been able to culture 10 per cent of the bacteria they isolated. This should be enough for therapy, says Allen-Vercoe. "There's an awful lot of redundancy and you don't need everything to get a functional ecosystem."

To find out if the cultures could be used therapeutically, the team gave a suspension of their cultured bacteria to two people with recurrent C. Difficile infection. The bacteria cocktail was effectively "drizzled" along the inside of each person's large intestine using a colonic tube. Both people avoided C. Difficileinfections for the six months they were monitored.

Early promise

While the synthetic stool therapy will need to be trialled in more people, the early results are promising, says Allen-Vercoe. And it offers another important advantage.

"Faecal transplants have been heralded as a wonderful thing… but we don't know what the long-term consequences are," she says. There's always a chance that there'll be a pathogen lurking in faeces, for example. The benefit of using a synthetic stool therapy is that you know exactly what is in it, and can ensure that no dangerous bacteria or antibiotic-resistant strains are present, she says.

Vincent Young, a microbiologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, agrees. "It's a move in the right direction," he says.

Young cautions that more research is needed before therapies that target gut bacteria become more common. For recurrent C. Difficile infections, you cannot argue with the success of the treatment, he says. "But at the same time, gut bacteria has been linked to diabetes, obesity, allergies… the list goes on." Gut bacteria that make one person healthy might cause health problems in another, he says.

Journal reference: Microbiome, DOI: 10.1186/2049-2618-1-3

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Hong Kong leader survives impeachment bid

HONG KONG: Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers failed in an unprecedented bid on Wednesday to impeach the city's embattled Beijing-backed leader, after they accused him of breaking housing laws and urged him to quit.

The city's first impeachment motion, which accused Leung Chun-ying of lying, dereliction of duty and serious breaches of the law in a row stemming from illegal structures at his luxury home, was denied after eight hours of debate.

The 27 pro-democracy lawmakers who signed the joint motion -- which they said was a symbolic move -- voted in favour, while 37 voted against in the 70-seat legislature which is dominated by pro-Beijing members.

Wednesday's vote followed a protest on New Year's Day in which tens of thousands took to the streets to urge Leung to quit and to press for greater democracy, 15 years after the city returned to Chinese rule.

The former British colony maintains a semi-autonomous status, with its own legal and judicial system, but cannot choose its leader through the popular vote.

Leung took office in July after he was picked by a 1,200-strong election committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites, amid rising anger over what many perceive to be China's meddling in local affairs.

China has said the chief executive could be directly elected in 2017 at the earliest, with the legislature following by 2020.

Unauthorised structures are a politically sensitive issue in the space-starved city of seven million and demonstrators have used the scandal to press for universal suffrage in choosing Hong Kong's leader.

Leung secured the chief executive role after criticising his rival Henry Tang over illegal structures at Tang's home.

But he has since acknowledged and apologised for structures at his own home which were built without planning permission.

Maverick lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, wearing a T-shirt reading "We topple a tyrant", accused the new leader of lying about his own structures during campaigning when he presented the impeachment motion earlier on Wednesday.

"He has used dishonest ways to win the election," he said.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, second in command in Leung's administration, said the motion was unnecessary and urged lawmakers to work together on policy and livelihood issues.

But Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said the motion was a symbolic gesture to show the deepening public mistrust toward Leung, claiming the leader had "cheated his way to power".

"This is the first time we have a motion in the legislature to impeach a cheating chief executive," she said.

If the motion had been passed, the city's highest court would have had to initiate an investigation. At least two-thirds of the legislature would need to endorse a guilty finding before Leung could be removed from office.

Earlier, rival protesters traded barbs outside the legislature and security personnel had to step in at one point when an angry pro-government supporter charged towards the rival group, TV footage showed.

Leung's popularity ratings have fallen since the controversy, with discontent over issues including sky-high property prices and anti-Beijing sentiment remaining high.

- AFP/xq

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How Samsung might get featuritis under control

Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, talks about the company's TV features during the company's press conference at CES.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Samsung has a serious case of featuritis, but it's trying to get better.

The Korean electronics giant has long been known for its push to include more and more features in its products, whether it's new hardware capabilities like NFC in smartphones or software like smart TV apps. Samsung uses such features as a way to differentiate its new gadgets from rivals and from its older products, and consumers typically like those add-ons because they're getting more for the same price. Win-win, right?

The problem is more isn't always better when it comes to device features. Rather, cramming unnecessary capabilities into products can make them confusing and difficult to use. Critics say this lack of focus sometimes distracts Samsung from investing in more vital items like TV picture quality. And when the features don't work well (as seems to be the case fairly often), it can reflect poorly on Samsung.

"It's an ongoing challenge for us," Kevin Packingham, chief product officer of Samsung's U.S. mobile business, told CNET. "You have hundreds of capabilities in the device that sometimes the user never becomes aware of even though they buy the product. We have so much innovation and technology built into devices that it can be overwhelming."

However, he and many other Samsung executives told CNET that simplifying the user experience is one of Samsung's biggest focuses for 2013. That sentiment echoed throughout the company's press events and meetings this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Samsung designers even made the point yesterday during a press panel that the company's new design strategy is "make it meaningful."

Of course, Samsung isn't the only company with featuritis. For electronics makers, there's a fine line between including too many features and not enough. While people may only access Netflix on their smart TVs, it's unlikely they'd purchase a product that didn't include a few more options. And while Apple's streamlined interface is often held up as a model for other operating systems,
Android device users would howl if they lost the ability to customize their gadgets.

In addition, one of those seemingly unnecessary features could turn out to be the item that makes a device a must-have gadget.

"They've got to keep throwing features at the wall and hope something gets people going 'ooh and ahh' and reaching for their wallet," IHS iSuppli analyst Jordan Selburn said.

The easel design of Samsung's 85-inch 4K TV is one of the most striking you'll ever see.

CNET's reviews team has panned some of Samsung's features in the past, such as saying the voice and gesture control on TVs is unnecessary and "half-baked" and the Smart TV suite in general is "cluttered" with too many apps and poor, overwhelming design. In mobile, CNET has criticized some Galaxy S3 programs like AllShare Play and GroupCast for being "unnecessarily complicated to set up and use."

However, Samsung during its
CES press conference on Monday highlighted several steps it's taking to make its products easier to use. That includes a revamped smart TV user interface, improved voice interaction for its televisions, and the integration of NFC technology into speakers to make it simpler to pair a mobile device with the system.

In addition, the Smart Hub application has been enhanced with more content -- movies, videos, and music -- and a new TV program guide. This augments Samsung's new S-Recommendation engine, which lists suggested content in thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. And it also has a new video discovery tool for its TVs and mobile devices that allows users to search for content in cable listings and streaming services.

Samsung also has ramped up its advertising that shows ways device owners can use its products, such as this spot on sharing a video via NFC by tapping two Galaxy S3s together.

"They don't even use the word NFC in these ads," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said. "That's a huge improvement for Samsung where in the past they might have simply put NFC in a device and said it had NFC."

Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung Electronics, kicks off the company's press conference at 2013 CES.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)

Meanwhile, TJ Kang, senior vice president of Samsung's media solution center, told CNET that Samsung is expanding its team that focuses on the user experience. Kang noted that his business unit, which develops the apps and services that come preloaded on Samsung devices, is one of the fastest-growing operations in the company.

Samsung has been hiring many people with expertise in creating a better user experience, he said, even luring away employees from rivals in Silicon Valley.

"These people are helping the existing teams come up to speed on creating the experience users really will enjoy," Kang said. "You'll begin to see that as part of this new video discovery service and many new apps and services we'll be launching this year."

While Samsung is taking many steps to ease its featuritis, it still has quite a ways to go. The company went a bit overboard with features for its 2013 TVs unveiled at the show, and users still have to navigate through many layers of settings to do certain things on their mobile devices.

But what it ultimately comes down to is how well those features actually work and whether consumers seek out Samsung products to get them.

"The era of pure technology push is long over," David Steel, Samsung executive vice president of corporate strategy, told CNET. "It's now less about smart and becoming more and more about the relevance of smart, the human touch of smart."

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

U.S. emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with flu patients, turning away some of them and others with non-life-threatening conditions for lack of space.

Forty-one states are battling widespread influenza outbreaks, including Illinois, where six people -- all older than 50 -- have died, according to the state's Department of Public Health.

At least 18 children in the country have died during this flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The proportion of people seeing their doctor for flu-like symptoms jumped to 5.6 percent from 2.8 percent in the past month, according to the CDC.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago reported a 20 percent increase in flu patients every day. Northwestern Memorial was one of eight hospitals on bypass Monday and Tuesday, meaning it asked ambulances to take patients elsewhere if they could do so safely.

Dr. Besser's Tips to Protect Yourself From the Flu

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Most of the hospitals have resumed normal operations, but could return to the bypass status if the influx of patients becomes too great.

"Northwestern Memorial Hospital is an extraordinarily busy hospital, and oftentimes during our busier months, in the summer, we will sometimes have to go on bypass," Northwestern Memorial's Dr. David Zich said. "We don't like it, the community doesn't like it, but sometimes it is necessary."

A tent outside Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, Pa., was set up to tend to the overflowing number of flu cases.

A hospital in Ohio is requiring patients with the flu to wear masks to protect those who are not infected.

State health officials in Indiana have reported seven deaths. Five of the deaths occurred in people older than 65 and two younger than 18. The state will release another report later today.

Doctors are especially concerned about the elderly and children, where the flu can be deadly.

"Our office in the last two weeks has exploded with children," Dr. Gayle Smith, a pediatrician in Richmond, Va., said

It is the earliest flu season in a decade and, ABC News Chief Medical Editor Dr. Besser says, it's not too late to protect yourself from the outbreak.

"You have to think about an anti-viral, especially if you're elderly, a young child, a pregnant woman," Besser said.

"They're the people that are going to die from this. Tens of thousands of people die in a bad flu season. We're not taking it serious enough."

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