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(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that H5N1 avian influenza caused the deaths of two teenage girls, a 15-year-old in Egypt and a 13-year-old in Cambodia.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed rules that would relax some labeling restrictions on irradiated foods and invited the public to comment.

The FDA currently requires all irradiated foods to have the international radura symbol and the statement "treated by irradiation" or "treated with radiation" clearly displayed on the packaging.

(CIDRAP News) – N-95 respirators are regarded as a key tool for protecting people from airborne influenza viruses in the event of a pandemic, but a recent study suggests that without special instruction, most people are likely to wear the devices incorrectly, limiting their effectiveness.

(CIDRAP News) –Indonesia and Egypt each have reported another human case of H5N1 avian influenza, the first in a 29-year-old man who died and the second in a 15-year-old girl, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – ConAgra, the producer of peanut butter linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak in February, announced yesterday that its own investigation found that moisture might have triggered the growth of the bacteria.

(CIDRAP News) – New human cases of H5N1 avian influenza were reported in Cambodia and Egypt today, while Indonesian officials, according to one news service, said they would not resume sharing H5N1 virus samples unless vaccine manufacturers promise to provide the country with free pandemic flu vaccines.

Because most people feel ambivalent about possible future pandemics, communicating effectively with them requires skillful balance on a wide range of communication 'seesaws.'

(CIDRAP News) – A second round of H5N1 avian influenza tests came back negative today on four Bangladeshi men who initially tested positive after helping cull chickens in Kuwait, while tests confirmed the infection in a 15-year-old Indonesian girl, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – CSL Biotherapies, the US branch of an Australian vaccine producer, announced this week it has applied for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market a seasonal influenza vaccine in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada recently released a report on the investigation of its ninth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the first case of 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – In a major effort to track influenza viruses in nature and learn more about how they interact with the human body, the federal government this week announced a $23-million-a-year program to fund research centers at six institutions around the country.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia announced another fatal case of H5N1 avian influenza today, as initial tests indicated H5N1 infections in four Bangladeshi poultry cullers hospitalized in Kuwait.

(CIDRAP News) – Social control measures such as closing schools and banning public gatherings played a significant role in slowing the advance of the 1918 influenza pandemic in a number of US cities, but their success depended on how soon the measures were deployed and how slowly they were lifted, two teams of researchers reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's national avian influenza commission has recommended that the health ministry conduct an autopsy on each person who dies of H5N1 avian flu to learn more about how the disease affects the body, the Jakarta Post reported today.

(CIDRAP New) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) gave a good news–bad news assessment of the global avian flu situation today, after a weekend that brought word of more outbreaks on farms in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

The FAO said the disease has infected fewer birds so far this year than it had by this time last year, but warned that Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria have not yet been able to control it.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials in West Virginia yesterday planned to cull about 25,000 turkeys at a farm after routine tests indicated that some were probably exposed to a low-pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Three more Egyptian children have tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, raising Egypt's H5N1 case count to 32, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

One of the patients is a 4-year-old boy from Qena governorate, about 416 miles south of Cairo, whose 6-year-old sister was diagnosed with the disease on Mar 28, a WHO report said. He became ill Mar 26 and was hospitalized 3 days later.

March 30, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Genetic elements that confer multidrug resistance (MDR) in both plague and foodborne bacteria have a common origin and may represent a significant public health threat, according to a study published Mar 20 in the journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science One).

(CIDRAP News) – A doctor who treated an Indonesian boy who died of suspected H5N1 avian influenza is now being treated for suspicious symptoms himself, according to media reports today.

The doctor had treated a 15-year-old boy who died on Mar 25 at a hospital in Bandung. Reuters reported. Indonesian officials said 3 days ago that initial tests indicated the boy had the H5N1 virus.

You may be tempted to minimize the importance of food-sector pandemic planning because it's not your business. Nothing could be further from the truth.