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(CIDRAP News) – Orlando, FL – As businesses develop pandemic preparedness plans, they need to cut through a "fog" of uncertainty about exactly what pandemic influenza will look like and how their companies will be able to respond to it, infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said at a summit in Orlando Monday.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration's new budget proposes adding funds for pandemic preparedness while cutting some support for bioterrorism and local preparedness, drawing mixed reviews from national public health groups.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia, the country that has seen more human deaths from avian influenza H5N1 than any other, has ceased sharing viruses isolated from its patients with international health authorities, challenging the global system for flu-strain identification and vaccine development.

(CIDRAP News) – Orlando, FL – Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today challenged health and business leaders to stay focused on the "marathon" of preparing for an influenza pandemic.

Gerberding, speaking at a conference on business preparedness, said it's not possible to maintain high public interest in the pandemic threat indefinitely, but leaders must keep preparing anyway.

(CIDRAP News) – Two new human cases of H5N1 avian influenza were announced by Indonesia's health ministry today, as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Egypt's latest case.

(CIDRAP News) – Orlando, FL – Corporate America is showing signs of a growing recognition of the threat of an influenza pandemic, but the concern is not yet a major topic in executive suites, according to recent surveys by a business consultant.

(CIDRAP News) – Government veterinarians confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza at a large turkey farm in Suffolk, England, 2 days ago, marking the country's first poultry outbreak and Europe's second in 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – New federal recommendations on nonpharmaceutical measures communities can use to fight an influenza pandemic are drawing generally high marks from public health officials and others, but they say the plan spells a massive workload for local planners.

(CIDRAP News) – Inducing just two small changes in the virus that caused the influenza pandemic of 1918 inhibits the pathogen's ability to spread, researchers reported Thursday, a finding that may help identify potential pandemic flu strains in the future.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials today unveiled recommendations for nonpharmaceutical steps to battle pandemic influenza, tying them to a new "Pandemic Severity Index" (PSI), similar to the system for categorizing hurricanes.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that if the threat of an influenza pandemic increases, it will release viruses to vaccine manufacturers before completion of some safety tests, a step that could save about 2 weeks in vaccine development.

Next week the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy hosts the second national summit on business preparedness and pandemic influenza. I have the opportunity to address 300 or more business, government, and community leaders who will convene for the common purpose of better preparing the business world for the next pandemic.

(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) – Dr. Anne Francis, a pediatrician in Rochester, N.Y., says her group practice typically has a few doses of influenza vaccine left at the end of the flu season. But as of last week, with the demand for vaccination nearly gone, the clinic still had 580 doses on hand.

(CIDRAP News) – Russia reported its first H5N1 avian influenza outbreak of the season today, as more suspicious bird deaths were reported in Japan and Hungary, where agriculture authorities are battling other recently confirmed outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – California agriculture officials are encouraging growers and producers to sign on to a plan to voluntarily bolster produce safety standards, though a state legislator says only laws can force changes needed to prevent future produce outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia’s health ministry announced today that a 6-year-old girl recently died of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country’s sixth case this year, according to news services.

The girl, from central Java, died 6 days ago in a Yogyakarta hospital, Ahmad Priyatna, an official with Indonesia’s bird flu information center, told Reuters. He said her neighbors reportedly had dead chickens.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza shots should be mandatory for healthcare workers, and public health officials should think of seasonal flu as a dress rehearsal for pandemic flu, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said today as it unveiled a 12-point plan to strengthen the nation's preparedness.

Bird flu is 4 problems, not 1. Keeping them straight is a prerequisite to sensible risk communication—and sensible preparedness.

What will the first days of the pandemic look like?

Imagine that the virulent H5N1 influenza virus has begun spreading from human to human in an Asian country. Your employees—like the rest of the world—are watching the situation unfold, and you must react. What do you do and when do you do it?