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(CIDRAP News) – Canada's investigation of its second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) recently concluded with a finding that at least 110 cattle in the infected cow's birth group died or were slaughtered before that case came to light.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today announced two unusual steps to encourage more Americans to get influenza shots: releasing a federal emergency stockpile of 3.1 million doses and, where local conditions permit, freeing doses normally reserved for certain groups of children.

(CIDRAP News) – An investigation into how three scientists contracted tularemia from a supposedly harmless strain of bacteria appears to be pointing toward a natural source, the Boston Globe has reported.

(CIDRAP News) – Instead of finding common ground on pandemic influenza planning, World Health Organization (WHO) members this week hit rocky terrain.

(CIDRAP News) - A reported family cluster of H5N1 avian influenza cases among three brothers in Vietnam may turn out to be only two cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Contrary to some media reports, the WHO said the 36-year-old younger brother of two men who contracted the disease has not been sick, though test results are still pending.

(CIDRAP News) – The idea of stopping an emerging influenza pandemic would have seemed ridiculous until a few years ago, but today the world just might have a chance to do that, according to two flu experts who published opinion pieces this week.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said last week that some passengers on US airliners may want to consider drinking only canned or bottled beverages, after the latest round of water tests again showed signs of potential contamination on some planes.

(CIDRAP News) – Three more confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza—two of them fatal—have been reported in Vietnam since Jan 21.

The latest cases, which involved a teenager and a man and woman in their 30s, bring the number of confirmed fatal cases in Vietnam since late December to nine, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who analyzed a family cluster of three cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Thailand say in an article published today that two family members probably acquired the disease from the third.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities are investigating the possibility of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza in two newly confirmed cases in middle-aged brothers in northern Vietnam, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Several healthcare professionals have been suspended and an Arizona company has been shut down in the investigation launched last November when four Floridians were paralyzed by injections with a botulinum toxin not approved for use in humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The next infectious disease to enter the United States might cross the border taped to a traveler's leg or tucked snugly under a tourist's hat.

Smuggling of wild animals has always posed hazards to human health, but the stakes may be getting higher today, given the role of animal hosts in lethal outbreaks such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – The death of an 18-year-old woman from a southern province was Vietnam's sixth avian influenza death since late December, Vietnamese officials were quoted as saying today.

The young woman, who died in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday after 13 days in a hospital there, was from Tien Gang, Health Ministry spokesman Tran Duc Long told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(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.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today added two more cases to its tally of confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian flu in Vietnam, and WHO officials reportedly said another 10 suspected cases are under investigation there.

Jan 14, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – One of the worst fears of infectious disease experts is that the H5N1 avian influenza virus now circulating in parts of Asia will combine with a human-adapted flu virus to create a deadly new flu virus that could spread around the world.

(CIDRAP News) – As a result of a federal court ruling that stopped the US military's anthrax vaccination program last October, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking for public comments on its finding that the anthrax vaccine is safe and effective.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnamese health officials today confirmed the fourth human case of avian influenza in Vietnam since December, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

The patient is an 18-year-old woman from the southern province of Tien Giang who is hospitalized in critical condition, the WHO said. She became ill Jan 1 and was hospitalized Jan 5, the agency said.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of avian influenza outbreaks among poultry in Vietnam has been growing quickly, according to reports from the region.

The Vietnam Veterinary Department said outbreaks had been reported in 20 communes and 15 districts of seven cities and provinces, primarily in southern Vietnam, by Jan 9, according to a Voice of Vietnam news story posted online on that date.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada today reported its third confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), just 9 days after confirming its second case.

The case was in an Alberta beef cow just under 7 years old, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said. "No part of the animal has entered the human food or animal feed systems," the agency said.