News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Although thorough cooking ensures that chicken and other poultry are safe to eat, birds from flocks infected with H5N1 avian influenza should be kept out of the food supply, international health and agriculture authorities said this week.

(CIDRAP News) – An Indonesian woman who died in a Jakarta hospital yesterday has tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, according to officials quoted in The Jakarta Post. Further testing is pending at a World Health Organization (WHO) reference laboratory in Hong Kong.

(CIDRAP News) – China's ambitious goal of vaccinating all its poultry against H5N1 avian influenza may be impossible and could even backfire by helping to spread the virus, according to experts quoted in recent news reports.

Chinese officials announced Nov 15 the aim of vaccinating the country's estimated current stock of 5.2 billion poultry, most of which are in small backyard flocks. Officials said China raises 14 billion birds annually.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States proposed today that a small group of experts be appointed immediately to plan a fast response in case an influenza pandemic erupts, as an international conference on avian and pandemic flu continued in Geneva.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said yesterday it would set up a team to "kick start" avian influenza control efforts in Indonesia, which has been criticized for its response to the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – New avian influenza outbreaks were reported today in European Russia, China, and Vietnam, as experts said recent outbreaks in Turkey and Romania have strengthened the suspicion that migratory birds are spreading the H5N1 virus.

In addition, avian flu was suspected in a Thai man who died of a lung infection after killing and eating chickens that might have had the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The avian influenza virus long established in Southeast Asia has reached Europe's doorstep, with confirmation today that a lethal virus in Turkey is H5N1 and that an H5 strain in Romania is still being subtyped.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials have blamed two more deaths on H5N1 avian influenza, bringing the country's reported avian flu toll to six, although the cases have not yet been confirmed by an international reference laboratory.

A 27-year-old woman who died today and a 5-year-old girl who died last week had the virus, according to officials quoted by the Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse.