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We have no grounds for confidence that a severe pandemic is imminent. Our communications shouldn't imply otherwise.

Medical historians tell us there have been nine influenza pandemics in the past 300 years. So one every 30 to 35 years or so, or roughly three per century, is everybody's best guess about the future frequency of influenza pandemics.

(CIDRAP News) – A prolonged Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter has expanded to 329 cases in 41 states, an increase of 41 cases since the outbreak was announced on Feb 14, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday.

Feb 20, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Because of changes in the influenza viruses now in circulation, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended changing one of the three viral strains to be used in flu vaccines in the Northern Hemisphere next fall and winter.

(CIDRAP News) – Following an inspection trip to Nigeria, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that H5N1 avian influenza is still spreading there and called on the country to increase control measures on farms and in markets.

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of a national Salmonella outbreak, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revised its warning about potentially tainted peanut butter to include all Peter Pan peanut butter products bought since May 2006.

(CIDRAP News) – Russian officials today confirmed that suspicious bird deaths in three towns on the outskirts of Moscow were caused by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed a fatal H5N1 avian influenza case in a 37-year-old woman in Egypt, as the country’s health ministry announced that a 5-year-old boy had tested positive for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia and the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed today that Indonesia will resume sharing its H5N1 avian influenza virus samples while the WHO will work to ensure that developing countries have access to pandemic vaccines based on viruses they supply.

(CIDRAP News) – The live-virus, intranasal influenza vaccine FluMist strongly outperformed conventional killed-virus vaccines in a study involving close to 8,000 children younger than 5 years, a finding that may help pave the way for US approval of the vaccine for that age-group.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported "encouraging progress" on development of H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, while cautioning that global capacity to make the vaccines remains very limited.

Following a 2-day meeting of vaccine experts in Geneva, the WHO said new vaccines aimed at various strains of H5N1—considered the likeliest candidate to spark a flu pandemic—look promising.

t's been a busy 10 days on the H5N1 front. Indonesia reported two new human cases and Egypt reported one new human case; there are new confirmed poultry outbreaks in South Korea, Pakistan.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers yesterday to avoid certain peanut butter brands linked to a slow but sustained Salmonella outbreak that has sickened 288 people in 39 states since August.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's (WHO's) latest analysis of human H5N1 avian influenza cases adds to previous evidence that young people are more susceptible to the virus and more likely to die of it than older people.

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt’s health ministry today announced that a 37-year-old woman has tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country’s third case of 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health workers are urging Americans to stock up and plan for the next emergency, but when it comes to their own lives, the cupboards are often bare, according to a recent survey by the American Public Health Association (APHA).

(CIDRAP News) – A team of researchers has achieved what has been until now a frustratingly elusive goal: a tissue-culture model that allows natural growth in the lab of norovirus, one of the most common and least understood causes of gastrointestinal illness worldwide.

Editor's note: This story was revised Feb 13 to include a clarification about the number of avian flu cases in Indonesia that have been confirmed by the World Health Organization.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia’s health ministry yesterday announced two H5N1 avian influenza deaths, involving a woman and a boy from West Java, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Turkey announced today an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak at a farm in the southeastern part of the country, as English authorities explored the possibility of a connection between recent outbreaks in Suffolk and Hungary.

A report submitted to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) by Turkey's agriculture ministry said the outbreak began Feb 5 and affected poultry in a village in Batman province, about 460 miles from Ankara.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Labor (DOL) has introduced workplace health guidelines to help businesses understand their pandemic influenza risks and what they need to do to prepare.

(CIDRAP News) – Predictions and observations at this week's conference on business preparedness for pandemic influenza ran the gamut from how fast a pandemic would circle the globe to how well the Internet would hold up, with many topics in between.