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(CIDRAP News) – A controlled study of H5N1 influenza patients in Vietnam has provided fresh evidence that explosive viral growth and the resulting cytokine storm, or excessive immune response, account for the often lethal nature of H5N1 disease.

(CIDRAP News) – US officials have resolved what they're calling a lapse in communication that has contributed to China's delay in sending promised poultry samples of H5N1 avian influenza virus to the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization today recognized three more cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia, including one reported by the government yesterday and two dating back to 2005.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent report about the use of blood products to treat patients in the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 has sparked interest among those concerned about the threat of the next pandemic, but experts say it's far from clear whether the approach would be practicable in a pandemic today.

Sept 7, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – In a human trial in China, a whole-virus H5N1 avian influenza vaccine generated an immune response with a relatively low dose of antigen, suggesting that it could be used to immunize more people than may be possible with some other vaccines under development.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who tested 351 Cambodian villagers after they had extensive contact with avian influenza–infected poultry in 2005 found that none had antibodies to the H5N1 virus, suggesting that it doesn't easily spread to humans and that mild cases are rare.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza vaccine manufacturers expect to make and distribute more than 100 million doses in the next few months, millions more than in any previous flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

The predicted total is about 17 million more than the current record for doses distributed—83.1 million in 2003, the CDC said. Last year about 81.2 million doses were distributed.

(CIDRAP News) – Mallard ducks in Maryland tested positive for low-pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, and initial tests pointed to the same findings in Pennsylvania mallards, federal officials said late last week.

Tests ruled out the lethal form of H5N1 virus that has spread through birds in much of Asia and parts of Europe and Africa in the past 3 years, officials said.

Sept 1, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The nation's largest public health organization sounded an alarm this week about the public health workforce, citing a current shortage and projecting that the profession could lose up to half of its workers over the next few years.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia launched a month-long, nationwide media campaign today to warn people to take precautions against H5N1 avian influenza, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – A dog in Thailand's central Suphan Buri province contracted avian influenza after eating infected ducks, according to a Thai researcher quoted in a newspaper.

(CIDRAP News) – No highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has turned up in any of the 13,000 wild migratory birds that federal and state officials have tested since Apr 26, the US government announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Government-funded researchers say they have developed a test that may enable more laboratories to fully identify influenza viruses than is possible with existing tests.

(CIDRAP News) – Final tests confirmed that two mute swans in Michigan had a mild strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus, not the lethal Asian variety, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today released a list of case definitions for human H5N1 avian influenza infection to improve reporting and tracking of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Now that most states have issued preliminary or final plans for dealing with pandemic influenza, a group of experts who looked at the public health strategies in the plans has given them a mixed review.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government announced yesterday the launch of a Web site that allows the public to view current information about testing of wild birds for H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – Leading medical researchers yesterday announced the formation of a consortium to unlock genetic and other data on avian influenza in the hope of improving the understanding of how viruses such as H5N1 spread and evolve.

(CIDRAP News) – A procedural error at a feed mill might have resulted in contamination of cattle feed with banned materials and caused Canada's seventh case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the Canadian government said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian flu experts in two of the countries with the most human H5N1 avian influenza cases to date—Vietnam and Thailand—are warning that the antiviral drug oseltamivir may mask the infection and complicate laboratory detection.