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(CIDRAP News) – To stem quickly spreading H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks that have hit South Korea over the past few weeks, agriculture ministry officials said today as many as 5.32 million birds would be culled, the largest such operation in the country's history of battling the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed that a 2-year-old Egyptian boy has H5N1 avian influenza, which raised the country's case count to 50.

(CIDRAP News) – Robin Robinson, PhD, who led the development of the first H5N1 influenza vaccine approved for human use, has been named the first director of the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA).

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Robinson's appointment this week.

(CIDRAP News) – US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, in Vietnam today on the second leg of a 10-daytour of Southeast Asia, revealed new details on his blog today about his talks with Indonesian officials on two controversial issues: the country's refusal to freely share H5N1 virus samples and the status of the US Navy's medical laboratory unit, NAMRU-2.

(CIDRAP News) –Agriculture officials in South Korea said today they had received new reports of suspicious bird deaths at seven different sites, as the number of confirmed H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks grew by three, to 15.

The suspected outbreaks are in North and South Jeolla provinces in the southwestern part of South Korea, not far from the sites of other recent outbreaks, according to a report from Reuters today.

(CIDRAP News) – Preliminary findings from Wisconsin suggest that this year's flu vaccine lowered one's risk of catching the flu by 44%, even though two of the three strains used in the vaccine didn't match well with the viruses in circulation, federal health officials announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Seasonal influenza viruses flow out of overlapping epidemics in East and Southeast Asia, then trickle around the globe before dying off, researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) committee that selects the viral strains for the annual flu vaccine said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Acting on the premise that "disasters discriminate," the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and several partner groups yesterday released a lengthy set of proposed guidelines for protecting the most vulnerable people during an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Japan's health ministry today said it was on the verge of approving a plan to administer prepandemic vaccine to healthcare workers, which would make it the world's first country to tap its national stockpile for this purpose.

Editor's note: The numbers in this story were revised on Apr 15 to reflect a correction issued by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA originally said the outbreak involved 23 cases in 14 states, but on Apr 15 the agency said the correct numbers were 21 cases in 13 states.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in South Korea yesterday said an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak was confirmed at a fourth farm, amid reports of several more suspected outbreaks, a day after Russia's agriculture ministry said the virus had struck birds in the far eastern part of the country.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) held a 2-day meeting this week to gather feedback on its next proposed steps to reverse the recent increase in recalls and illnesses related to Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef.

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt's health ministry announced today that a 30-year-old woman has died of an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's second fatality from the disease in less than a week.

(CIDRAP News) – Samples taken from the Alamosa, Colo., water system before it was treated for Salmonella contamination also showed that the water was tainted with two parasites, Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

(CIDRAP News) – The rates of the most common foodborne illnesses in the United States have remained about the same since 2004, pointing to a need for increased efforts to ensure food safety, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – A 52-year-old Chinese man probably caught H5N1 avian influenza from his dying son while caring for him in a hospital last December, but others who had close contact with both patients were not infected, Chinese researchers reported this week in The Lancet.

(CIDRAP News) – Healthcare institutions still face significant hurdles in getting their staff members vaccinated against seasonal influenza, and fear of flu infection and caring for sick family will keep many staff home during an influenza pandemic, according to research released this week,

(CIDRAP News) – Iomai Corp., a biotechnology company that specializes in needle-free vaccines, announced today that it will receive a grant from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to fund preclinical development of a patch-based anthrax vaccine.

The 1-year grant to Iomai, based in Gaithersburg, Md., will be in the form of a $943,856 cost reimbursement from the US Army Medical Research and Material Command, according to a press release from Iomai.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary officials in India recently confirmed that the H5N1 avian influenza virus has struck poultry in a second state, Tripura, as animal health authorities in South Korea announced a new outbreak at a duck farm near where the virus was confirmed a few days ago after a year's hiatus.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted today that climate change will increase disease outbreaks by a variety of mechanisms and threaten human health in other ways.