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(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 influenza vaccine made by Baxter International could become the first cell culture–based H5N1 influenza vaccine to be approved for marketing, following its endorsement by a committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) last week.

Recommendations of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) are usually followed by the EMEA within a few months.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a new version of BioThrax—the nation's only licensed anthrax vaccine—that requires fewer doses and changes the injection route.

(CIDRAP News) – Increased resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the leading influenza drug, has prompted federal health officials to change their advice about flu treatment, saying clinicians for now should consider using zanamivir (Relenza) or a combination of two drugs for patients suspected of having influenza A.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities from Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Egypt reported that the H5N1 avian influenza virus has struck poultry again, according to new reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Cost issues and the risk of viral resistance drew considerable attention today in an online presentation by federal health officials on their revised guidance regarding use of antiviral drugs in an influenza pandemic.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two guidance documents this week, one on antiviral use in general and one on employer stockpiling of antivirals.

Editor's note: This story was revised Dec 17 to include an item that was mistakenly left out of the list of five main recommendations on antiviral use in a pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – China's agriculture ministry today said it has detected H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks at two poultry farms in Jiangsu province in the eastern part of the country.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the ministry said both sites where the H5N1 virus was found are in Haian county, in the eastern part of the province, according to a report today from Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt's health ministry has announced that a 16-year-old girl died of an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's first human case in about 8 months, according to a report today from the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) group that met last week in Geneva to solve problems related to global sharing of H5N1 avian influenza viruses made progress on language spelling out the commitment to sharing both the viruses and benefits, a senior US government official told CIDRAP News.

(CIDRAP News) – With this year's US influenza epidemic barely getting started, there are already signs of increased viral resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the most widely used antiviral drug, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

In its flu surveillance report for Nov 30 to Dec 6, released today, the CDC said 45 of 46 influenza A/H1N1 viruses tested so far have shown resistance to oseltamivir.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that a 19-year-old man from Cambodia has been hospitalized with H5N1 avian influenza, the country's first case in nearly a year and a half.

The man, from Kandal province, got sick on Nov 28 and first sought care from his local health center 2 day later, according to the WHO report. He is now listed as Cambodia's eighth H5N1 case, of which seven have been fatal.

(CIDRAP News) – Half-dose influenza shots generate nearly as strong an immune response in young adults as full-dose shots do, suggesting that cutting the dose in half may be a good way to cope with vaccine shortages, according to a study published this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Hong Kong today confirmed that the avian influenza virus that recently hit a large commercial chicken farm was the lethal H5N1 strain, as authorities vowed to explore potential protection gaps in the poultry vaccine and the possibility that smuggled eggs might be a source of the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced that the Ebola virus has been found in pigs for the first time, a discovery researchers made when they were investigating outbreaks of porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome (PRRS) at several swine producers in the Philippines.

(CIDRAP News) – The Rand Corp. today released its first-ever midseason survey on the uptake of the current influenza vaccine, which found that public officials still have a tall task in front of them to administer this year's record vaccine supply.

The survey indicated that about 30% of US adults had received a flu shot by mid November, but more than half of those surveyed said they didn't plan to get the immunization.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today said that Indonesia's health ministry has notified it of two new human H5N1 avian influenza cases, a 9-year-old girl who has recovered and a 2-year-old girl who died.

The announcements come as health officials from Indonesia and other nations are meeting in Geneva this week to work on an agreement for sharing H5N1 virus samples.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Hong Kong today said they have detected an H5 avian influenza outbreak at a poultry farm in Yuen Long, marking the country's first farm-based outbreak since 2003.

York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, said in a press release today that the H5 avian flu virus struck 60 chickens, which died yesterday. He did not say if the virus at the farm was the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype.

(CIDRAP News) – This year's report card from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) on state and national public health emergency preparedness shows some signs of progress along with major gaps, sagging funding, and worry that the current economic crisis will bring deeper spending cuts.

(CIDRAP News) – A report from the AARP Public Policy Institute says elderly African-Americans and Hispanics lag well behind elderly whites in influenza vaccination rates, even though the federal Medicare program fully covers the shots.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today said Kansas State University (KSU) is its preferred site among six candidates for a facility to replace the federal Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.