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Editor's note: This story was revised Aug 17 to add information on funding and a link to the government's request for proposals to supply the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government has called for proposals to supply up to 80 million doses of a weakened smallpox vaccine to protect people for whom the conventional vaccine is too risky, according to two vaccine manufacturers.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza has cropped up in chickens near Russia's Ural Mountains, possibly signaling a continued westward march of the deadly H5N1 virus, news services in Russia reported today.

The Chelyabinsk region along the southern end of the Urals is the sixth area in Russia to have been hit by avian flu outbreaks recently, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters. The Urals separate Siberia from European Russia.

(CIDRAP News) – A week-long meeting of Asian nations just finished in Bangkok resulted in consensus that regional stockpiles of antivirals should be amassed for fast use in the influenza pandemic that is widely expected to emerge from the avian flu strain now circulating.

Editor's note: This article was revised Aug 15, 2005, to include additional information regarding earlier related research.

(CIDRAP News) – Both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have said in the past day that Tibet has reported its first cases of avian influenza in poultry.

Aug 11, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – Government officials and scientists yesterday recognized the formal opening of construction on a laboratory that will house research on the most dangerous emerging infectious diseases and potential bioterrorism agents.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports from Vietnam say a 35-year-old man who died Jul 31 had H5N1 avian influenza, although official confirmation from the Ministry of Health is still to come.

(CIDRAP News) – Positive results from a human vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu that is the prime candidate for causing the next influenza pandemic came out of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this weekend. Still, the challenges to producing such a vaccine in the quantities needed in an actual pandemic lend a dose of reality to the news.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports from China today put the number of human cases of the baffling disease spreading through pigs in several areas at high as 212, with some 134 people still hospitalized and at least 14 considered critical. The number of deaths so far stands at 38.

(CIDRAP News) – Three more cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Vietnam, two of them fatal, were officially recognized today by the World Health Organization (WHO) after confirmation came from that country's Health Ministry, bringing the count to 90 cases with 40 deaths.

(CIDRAP News) –Weather and soil conditions in several areas of the United States are leading to record livestock losses from anthrax. This summer, approximately 400 animals have died in North and South Dakota, Texas, and Minnesota.

(CIDRAP News) – What looked like the possible third case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States has now been confirmed as a false alarm, leaving the number of domestic cattle infected with the disease at two, with one of those being Canadian-born.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers relying on mathematical modeling claim that early containment of pandemic influenza, an eventuality widely accepted as not an "if" but a "when," may well be attainable through targeted public health strategies. A leading public health expert, however, cautions against viewing these study results as fodder for relaxed planning efforts, stressing the myriad variables that would come into play.

(CIDRAP News) – Mass culling of domestic poultry in 13 villages in the Novosibirsk province of Russia is reportedly being carried out today. In addition, thousands of area families are being checked daily for illness, and farmers have been ordered to wear protective garments in an effort to contain the avian influenza outbreak there.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports on the mysterious pig-borne disease spreading among humans in China are numerous, with the number of cases closing in on 200 and fatalities standing at 34.

Editor's note: This story was revised July 31 to clarify information about previous reports of H5N1 influenza viruses in Russia.

(CIDRAP News) – News services said today the avian influenza outbreak reported last week in Russia involves the dangerous H5N1 strain, while two more fatal human cases of the illness were reported in Vietnam.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to ban the use of the antibiotic enrofloxacin (Baytril) in poultry because of the risk that it promotes drug-resistant bacteria that can be harmful to humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials said yesterday that testing of a 12-year-old cow yielded possible signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and that further tests are being conducted to clarify whether the disease was present.

The carcass was destroyed and did not enter the human food or animal feed chain, said Dr. John Clifford, chief veterinarian for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). He did not disclose where the cow lived.

(CIDRAP News) – A puzzling disease outbreak linked to pigs in southwestern China has expanded to 152 cases with 31 deaths, more than double the number of cases reported 3 days ago, according to Chinese news services.

(CIDRAP News) –About 100 people who gave blood to three people in Britain who later fell ill with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are being warned that they may have an increased risk of carrying the vCJD agent.