News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Disease experts and preparedness advocates reacted negatively today to comments by the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) suggesting that the risk of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian flu virus is minimal.

(CIDRAP News) – Many countries have improved their responses to H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in poultry in the past year, but the disease remains entrenched in six countries, according to a new report from the United Nations and the World Bank.

(CIDRAP News) – News services today reported the confirmation of H5N1 avian influenza on a chicken farm in Ghana, apparently making it the ninth African country to be hit by the virus.

Agriculture Minister Ernest Debrah said the outbreak was discovered Apr 24 on a farm near the port city of Tema, east of the capital, Accra, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.

(CIDRAP New) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) gave a good news–bad news assessment of the global avian flu situation today, after a weekend that brought word of more outbreaks on farms in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

The FAO said the disease has infected fewer birds so far this year than it had by this time last year, but warned that Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria have not yet been able to control it.

(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) – Indonesia recently announced two new H5N1 avian influenza deaths, and Egypt today said a 2-year-old boy tested positive for the disease, as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed two other cases: a Laotian woman who died and a 10-year-old Egyptian girl who is recovering.

(CIDRAP News) – Nigerian officials confirmed today that a 22-year-old woman died of H5N1 avian influenza, making Nigeria the third African country to have a human case, after Egypt and Djibouti.

The woman was from Lagos, the nation's largest city, a government minister told news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that recent poultry outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza have been less extensive than those a year ago but warned that many are going unreported.