News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Lab tests have shown that Escherichia coli O157:H7 coli found in hazelnuts from the home of one of three Minnesotans sickened in a three-state E coli outbreak matches the outbreak strain, Minnesota officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia today reported finding H5N1 avian influenza in swans, making Georgia the 16th country to report its first case this month.

Dead swans found in the village of Adliya, in the Black Sea coastal region of Adjara, tested positive, said Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, as quoted in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) says H5N1 avian influenza has infected birds in 14 more countries since the beginning of this month, and recent genetic changes in the virus may have something to do with its rapid spread in birds.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more human cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been confirmed, one in a Chinese woman who has recovered and the other in a 5-year-old Thai boy who died Dec 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

The cases increase the human toll of the virus over the past 2 years to 137 cases, including 70 deaths, according to the WHO. Exposure to poultry is the suspected cause in both of the latest cases.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government has awarded Chiron Corp. a $62.5 million contract to make a vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza as part of efforts to prepare for a possible human flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent exercise that confronted international leaders with a hypothetical smallpox attack showed the potential for tensions between countries that have enough smallpox vaccine and those that don't, according to news reports.