News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – While donor countries and organizations have responded well to the need for pandemic flu vaccine for developing countries, the level of giving for other pandemic response efforts in needy countries so far has fallen short, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a recent report.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday reported moderately active pandemic influenza activity in parts of the tropical regions of Asia, the Americas, and Africa, as well as influenza B activity in much of East Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – A government official in Laos yesterday said the H5N1 avian influenza virus has been detected in ducks in one of the country's provinces, the same day Togo's health ministry announced that avian influenza struck a poultry farm near that country's capital.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia have confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in birds, a first for each country.

The outbreak in Bangladesh struck chickens at a state-run poultry farm in Savar, near the capital, Dhaka, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. Government sources said farm workers had recently culled all 30,000 chickens at the farm after many of them died mysteriously, the AP said.

(CIDRAP News) – Spain today became the latest country to join the list of nations responding to outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza, as officials reported finding the virus in a wild bird.

(CIDRAP News) – Growing evidence of H5N1 avian influenza in cats suggests they may play a role in spreading the virus, signaling a need for new precautions, according to a team of medical and veterinary researchers from the Netherlands and Italy.

(CIDRAP News) – Afghanistan and Myanmar have joined the company of countries hit by H5N1 avian influenza with the confirmation today of the virus in chickens in both countries, according to news service reports.