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(CIDRAP News) – Sanofi Pasteur pledged today to give 60 million doses of H5N1 influenza vaccine over 3 years to the World Health Organization (WHO) for a planned stockpile to help poor countries in the event of an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – An Indonesian woman died of H5N1 avian influenza 10 days ago, but her case has not yet been publicly confirmed by the government, which is continuing to withhold information about avian flu cases, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday that the number of people sickened in a nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes has climbed to 228 in 23 states, while federal lawmakers voiced frustration over what they saw as slow progress toward improving produce safety.

(CIDRAP News) – A pharmaceutical company is reporting good results in the first clinical trial of an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine that uses a whole, killed H5N1 virus grown in cell culture—a combination of techniques that entails some risk but may boost immune response and shorten production time.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday that the death rate in the United States dropped significantly from 2005 to 2006, led by a 12.8% decline in mortality related to seasonal influenza and pneumonia.

The findings were released in a 52-page preliminary report on death trends for 2006 from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health workers in Hong Kong are culling all chickens in the city's markets and retail stores after finding the H5N1 avian influenza virus in three more markets, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Five years after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic spread around the globe via air travel, significant barriers still stand in the way of tracking down and notifying airline passengers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease.

(CIDRAP News) – US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced yesterday that the Bush administration has boosted its fiscal year 2009 budget request by $275 million to increase funds for new food and medical product safety initiatives at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned consumers nationwide to avoid certain raw tomatoes as the number of people sickened in a nationwide Salmonella outbreak grew to 145 cases in 16 states.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities in Hong Kong recently reported finding H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry market, marking the first detection of the virus in poultry there in more than 2 years.

(CIDRAP News) – The first real test of a new program to screen some arriving passengers at the Honolulu airport for flu-like illness went smoothly this week, according to an official with the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH).

(CIDRAP News) – The avian influenza virus that struck chickens on a farm in England this week has been identified as highly pathogenic H7N7 and is probably related to viruses that have sometimes surfaced in other European countries, British officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister said today the government has stopped the practice of promptly notifying global health officials each time it confirms a human H5N1 avian influenza case or death, a move some say will likely hamper efforts to monitor the world's pandemic risk level.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in England yesterday announced that chicken deaths at a farm in Oxfordshire were caused by an H7 form of avian influenza, while a poultry company in Arkansas reported that chickens at a large commercial farm tested positive for antibodies to a low-pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian flu.

(CIDRAP News) – Tomatoes are the likely culprit in 57 recent cases of Salmonella infection in New Mexico and Texas, and another 29 cases in seven other states may be part of the same outbreak, according to federal health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – Proposed pandemic preparedness guidance released by the federal government today recommends that people wear face masks if they have to go into crowds during an influenza pandemic and says critical infrastructure businesses should consider stockpiling antiviral drugs, among various other suggestions.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it is allocating states and major metropolitan areas $1.1 billion to strengthen public health preparedness and help healthcare facilities respond to emergency events such as an influenza pandemic or terrorist attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the release of complete genetic data for 150 avian influenza viruses in an effort to connect genetic information with the biological effects of the viruses and to improve diagnostic tests.

(CIDRAP News) –The World Health Assembly (WHA) recently approved a global strategy for managing intellectual property issues and made progress on a draft action plan that was presented by a World Health Organization (WHO) working group.

The WHA, which consists of delegates from all WHO member states and serves as the agency's policy-making arm, met in Geneva from May 19 to 23.

(CIDRAP News) – A survey of North Carolina families affected by a 10-day school closure due to a sharp rise in influenza-related absences found that the measure didn't cause families major hardships, but many did not heed a recommendation to avoid large gatherings.