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(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization official said yesterday that Indonesia is endangering the world's health by continuing to withhold H5N1 influenza virus samples collected from human patients.

(CIDRAP News) – A preliminary British government report says the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak discovered last week near London was very probably caused by a leak from a local laboratory.

(CIDRAP News) – Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a cattle disease that devastated the British beef industry in 2001, has resurfaced in England, possibly because of a laboratory leak.

(CIDRAP News) – A Ugandan miner who died in mid-July had Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and another worker at the same mine has a suspected case, the World Health Organization announced today.

The miner, aged 29, became ill on Jul 4, was hospitalized 3 days later, and died Jul 14, the WHO said. He had cared for a 21-year-old coworker who had fallen ill with similar symptoms on Jun 27 and was hospitalized but later recovered.

(CIDRAP News) – US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach announced this week the postponement of a plan to close about half of the FDA's field laboratories until the agency hears the recommendations of President Bush's import safety working group.

(CIDRAP News) – Since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned of a link between four botulism cases and contaminated chili sauce 2 weeks ago, state health departments have confirmed one additional botulism case and reported at least three more suspected cases.

(CIDRAP News) – A Mayo Clinic study indicates that many hospitalized influenza patients shed flu virus for at least 7 days after they fall ill, suggesting that the current recommendation to use infection control precautions for 5 days may be inadequate.

(CIDRAP News) – Representatives from 24 countries are meeting in Singapore this week to propose solutions to virus-sharing problems that threaten to derail global monitoring of the H5N1 avian influenza virus and stall the development of new vaccines and treatments.

(CIDRAP News) – A hospital official in Vietnam today said a 22-year-old woman who was 7 months pregnant died of H5N1 avian influenza 3 days ago, pushing the country's death toll from the disease this year to three.

(CIDRAP News) – Acambis, a British biotechnology company, recently announced the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial of an influenza vaccine designed to provide a stable shield against seasonal and pandemic flu strains and eliminate the need to overhaul the flu vaccine each year.

(CIDRAP News) – The Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), a group that includes 600 companies that distribute half of the United States' flu vaccine supply, released a report yesterday to help shed light on the some of the supply chain obstacles have delayed vaccine shipments to doctors' offices.

(CIDRAP News) – A recently published survey of Europeans and Asians showed that, when faced with an influenza pandemic, most would avoid mass transit and limit shopping to essentials, and many would avoid other public places, including restaurants, theaters, and the workplace.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of West Nile virus (WNV) cases reported so far this season has dramatically outpaced the number reported at about this time last summer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – World health experts have been working under a general assumption that a feared reassortment between human and avian influenza viruses—a scenario that could spark a pandemic—might only occur during a short winter interval, but researchers who recently examined virus circulation patterns warn that time frames for coinfection are wider and sometimes unpredictable.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India announced today that samples from chickens at a poultry farm in the remote northeastern Manipur state were positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus, signaling the country's first outbreak in more than a year.

(CIDRAP News) – Eighteen medical groups, led by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), released a report at a recent conference in Washington, DC, that contains 53 recommendations for improving the nation's response to mass casualty events such as terrorist attacks, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official in Cairo said yesterday that test results in a 25-year-old Egyptian woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

The country's state news agency, MENA, said the woman is from the Nile Delta's Damietta province in northern Egypt, according to a Reuters report yesterday. She came down with a high fever 3 days ago and is in good condition after receiving oseltamivir, MENA reported.

(CIDRAP News) – The company that recalled its chili sauce last week after four people got sick with suspected botulism poisoning dramatically expanded the recall over the weekend to include products that contain meat, including one dog food brand.

(CIDRAP News) – Four people from Texas and Indiana were recently hospitalized with suspected botulism poisoning after they consumed hot dog chili sauce that may have been contaminated, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday urged all countries to strengthen their food safety systems, a day after President Bush issued an executive order establishing a group to examine the safety of imported food and other goods.