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(CIDRAP News) – Investigation of an avian influenza outbreak points to a shipment of finches from Taiwan as the carriers of the H5N1 virus found in a quarantine facility in Sussex, England.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent laboratory study has produced more evidence that infection of human lung cells with the H5N1 avian influenza virus leads to intense inflammation similar to what was seen in victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – China's announcement today that it plans to vaccinate all of its poultry against H5N1 avian influenza would launch the country on the largest single immunization effort in history for any species, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official.

News of the vaccination plan came even as China reported two more poultry outbreaks, these in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

(CIDRAP News) – In China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, countries widely seen as ground zero in the global fight against H5N1 avian influenza, efforts to quash the virus are hampered by the lack of a key weapon: money.

(CIDRAP News) – A new suspected case of H5N1 avian influenza was reported in Indonesia today, while still another poultry outbreak was reported in China, its ninth in the past month.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the avian flu case reported in an 18-month-old boy in Thailand last week, while Thai officials said the boy's grandmother has tested negative for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand has reported its 21st human case of H5N1 avian influenza, while an infected flamingo was found in Kuwait and new poultry outbreaks surfaced in China, according to news reports today.

An 18-month-old boy in Bangkok was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus today, but he was already well on the way to recovery, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Thawat Sunthrajarn, Thailand's disease control director.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has no current plans to release the reconstructed version of the virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic to other laboratories, the head of the CDC said yesterday, but she did not rule out the possibility.

(CIDRAP News) – Scattered shortages of influenza vaccine have occurred this fall in the face of increased demand, but everyone who wants a shot should be able to get one before long, the nation's top disease-control official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – After a harrowing year of trying to stop the spread of the lethal Marburg virus, Angola has declared itself free of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Concluding a major conference on avian and pandemic influenza today, health officials reported a new level of international agreement on the need to confront the threat and released a list of key steps to do that.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese authorities said that the country's avian influenza outbreaks aren't fully controlled and that use of substandard poultry vaccines could lead to disaster, while Indonesia has added another likely human case to its avian flu tally, according to news reports today.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States proposed today that a small group of experts be appointed immediately to plan a fast response in case an influenza pandemic erupts, as an international conference on avian and pandemic flu continued in Geneva.

(CIDRAP News) – A 35-year-old man from Hanoi has become the 42nd Vietnamese to die of H5N1 avian influenza, while the number of suspected cases in Indonesia continued to grow, news services reported today.

Samples taken from the man were positive for the H5N1 virus, according to tests performed at the National Institute of Epidemiology in Hanoi, health ministry official Tran Duc Long told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(CIDRAP News) – Two more human cases of H5N1 infection—one of which was fatal—have been confirmed in Indonesia, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

A 19-year-old woman in Tangerang, near Jakarta, fell ill on Oct 19, was hospitalized on Oct 26, and died two days later, WHO said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – About 9,000 chickens have died and close to 370,000 have been culled in China in the largest of several outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza reported this week in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – The Asian Development Bank estimated this week that an influenza pandemic in Asia could kill 3 million people and possibly trigger a world recession, as the World Health Organization (WHO) geared up for a major conference on global strategy for limiting the pandemic threat.

(CIDRAP News) – In the event of an influenza pandemic, medical and public health personnel and workers who make critical vaccines and drugs would have first call on scarce doses of vaccine, under the pandemic plan released by the federal government yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – US health officials focused largely on expanding supplies of vaccines and antiviral drugs today as they rolled out a lengthy plan for responding to a feared influenza pandemic that could kill an estimated 1.9 million Americans under worst-case assumptions.

(CIDRAP News) – As the World Health Organization noted Thailand's 20th human case of avian influenza, it offered details today of the circumstances around the 50-year-old woman's infection.

Editor's Note: This is an expanded version of a story published earlier today ().

(CIDRAP News) – President George W. Bush today proposed $7.1 billion in spending to prepare for an influenza pandemic, including $5 billion for vaccines and drugs, as his administration released an outline of its preparedness strategy.