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(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) reference laboratory confirmed today that a 9-year-old Indonesian girl from the remote Garut district in West Java province who died on Aug 15 had H5N1 avian influenza virus.

(CIDRAP News) – West Nile fever may not be the benign illness it's usually considered to be, according to findings from a North Dakota research group.

Patients who have had West Nile virus infections can continue to experience troubling symptoms, even a year after their illness, the researchers found.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) reference laboratory confirmed today that a 62-year-old Chinese man from the far northwestern province of Xinjiang who died Jul 12 had H5N1 avian influenza. The WHO also confirmed another H5N1 case in Indonesia.

The Chinese man developed symptoms Jun 19, according to a WHO update today, and initial tests were negative. Tests repeated in July and August, however, produced positive results.

(CIDRAP News) –The federal government announced today that two swans in Michigan tested positive for both the H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes, but initial genetic sequencing suggests that it is a low-pathogenic type rather than the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain spreading through birds in Asia, Europe, and Africa and causing deaths in humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian authorities have concluded their investigation of the sixth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), confirmed on Jul 3 in a cow from Manitoba.

August 10, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of anthrax that began in early July, the largest ever recorded in Saskatchewan, has now killed at least 746 farm animals in that province and neighboring Manitoba, according to Aug 9 statistics from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

(CIDRAP News) – US agriculture and interior secretaries announced yesterday that their departments are expanding wild bird monitoring for H5N1 avian influenza beyond Alaska in partnerships with the lower 48 states, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed today that a 17-year-old girl who died yesterday in Jakarta province had H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country's second case this week.

The WHO statement said the case was confirmed by Indonesia's Ministry of Health. Indonesia's case count now stands at 56 cases with 44 deaths—the most deaths in any country to date.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of deaths in a Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) outbreak in Turkey has increased to 20, with a total of 242 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday.

Since WHO's last update on the outbreak on Jun 30 there have been 92 new cases and 9 new deaths. One of the fatalities involved a healthcare worker who acquired the infection while treating a patient with CCHF.

(CIDRAP News) – Two national groups of infectious disease experts urged the White House to make the development of vaccines the most important element in the nation's pandemic influenza plan.

(CIDRAP News) – The global death toll from H5N1 avian influenza grew by two today when the World Health Organization (WHO) added a Chinese case dating back to 2003 and the Indonesian case reported yesterday involving a 16-year-old boy. Meanwhile, reports today say another H5N1 death has occurred in Indonesia, this one in a teen girl.

(CIDRAP News) - A World Health Organization (WHO) reference laboratory confirmed today that a 27-year-old man who died on Aug 3 in central Thailand's Uthai Thani province had H5N1 avian influenza.

The WHO said investigators found that the man had contact with household chickens, which started dying about 1 week before the patient began having influenza symptoms.

(CIDRAP News) – A swan tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza at a German zoo yesterday, signaling the virus's re-emergence in the country after a 3-month lull.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is developing a technology that can identify real or fake bioterrorism agents faster and more cheaply than existing methods.

The technique uses mass spectrometry to sort out different species and strains of bacteria and distinguish them from inert substances such as flour and cornstarch, often used in bioterrorism hoaxes, the FDA said in a news release yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Concern about H5N1 avian influenza intensified in Thailand and Vietnam today as health officials reported more suspected human cases, but Indonesian officials said six people in two suspected case clusters in North Sumatra tested negative.

(CIDRAP News) – In an apparent policy shift, Indonesia promised today to freely share genetic data on H5N1 avian influenza viruses, according to a Bloomberg news report.

That announcement comes 2 days after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) pledged to "systematically" publish avian flu virus sequences and urged others to follow suit.

(CIDRAP News) – Seven people in Karo district of North Sumatra, Indonesia, are being treated for suspected H5N1 avian influenza, raising concern that the disease may have resurfaced near where human-to-human transmission was documented in an extended family in May.

(CIDRAP News) – For the seventh year in a row, cases of tularemia are being reported on Martha's Vineyard, where six cases of the rare respiratory form of the disease have occurred so far.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) in a Jul 27 press release said that the patients, ages 33 to 67, became ill between May 13 and Jul 5. All have been successfully treated and are recovering. Four of the six are employed as landscapers.

(CIDRAP News) – Amid a rising number of cases of suspected avian flu in birds and humans, Thailand's health minister yesterday declared that all of the country's provinces are on alert, triggering tighter rules on bird transport and disposal.

(CIDRAP News) – In an experiment designed to mimic events that could launch an influenza pandemic, a synthetic influenza virus made by combining an H5N1 avian flu virus with a human flu virus turned out to be no more contagious in an animal model than the natural H5N1 virus, US scientists are reporting this week.