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(CIDRAP News) – A 35-year-old Indonesian woman died of H5N1 avian influenza today, marking the country's 57th death from the virus, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – H5N1 avian influenza has been confirmed at a second poultry farm near the site of a recent outbreak, South Korea’s agriculture ministry told news services today.

(CIDRAP News) – South Korea has reported its first outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in nearly 3 years, on a poultry farm in North Jeolla province, about 100 miles from Seoul.

(CIDRAP News) – Two new reports on human cases of H5N1 avian influenza that occurred in Turkey and Indonesia last year show that the illness proved difficult to diagnose, with many tests yielding false-negative results.

More and more companies are starting to integrate pandemic preparedness into their business continuity programs. That's good news--and helping to facilitate it is one of the reasons this newsletter was launched.

(CIDRAP News) – Sampling by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) over the last 5 years has shown a fourfold increase in the number of broiler chicken carcasses contaminated with Salmonella enterica serotype enteritidis, a strain previously associated mainly with eggs.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers recently reported identifying two mutations in the H5N1 avian influenza virus that seem to improve its ability to attach to human cells, a finding that may help scientists spot H5N1 strains capable of infecting humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a new medical care guide to help community leaders plan for and respond to mass casualty events such as an influenza pandemic or a terrorist nuclear attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government today announced the awarding of three contacts to buy enough additional H5N1 avian influenza vaccine to immunize almost 2.7 million people, at a cost of $199.45 million.

(CIDRAP News) – A Department of Health and Human Services official said today that loss of potency is affecting less than 20% of H5N1 avian influenza vaccine doses in the national stockpile, not a majority of doses as reported here yesterday.

Bill Hall, an HHS spokesman in Washington, DC, said the agency has acquired a total of about 7.5 million doses of H5N1 vaccine to date, and about 200,000 of those have been used for research.

(CIDRAP News) – For children and adolescents with asthma, the intranasal influenza vaccine FluMist was as safe as and more effective than an injectable vaccine in a phase 3 trial of young people aged 6 to about 17 years.

The study, which involved 2,229 children at 145 sites in 12 European countries and Israel, was published in the October issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

(CIDRAP News) – Last month the US Department of Health and Human (HHS) called for a greater role for N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers in the event of an influenza pandemic, and now clinicians are raising questions about potential problems such as inadequate supplies and poor fit.

Editor's note: The day after publication of this story, a federal official told CIDRAP News the amount of H5N1 vaccine in the US stockpile that had begun to lose potency was less than 20% of the total, not a majority of the doses. See the Nov 17 follow-up story for more details.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists say they have developed an inexpensive "gene chip" test that can quickly identify a variety of influenza A viruses, including H5N1, and is less apt to be confused by viral mutations than other tests are.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Labor yesterday released revised Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidance to help employers protect their workers from job-related exposure to H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – Mainly on the basis of reports from Japan, drug manufacturer Roche and US regulators are warning that influenza patients treated with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) may have an increased risk of self-injury and delirium.

(CIDRAP News) – Adults may have a slightly higher risk for hospitalization with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) within a few weeks after influenza vaccination than at other times, though their overall risk of the disorder remains very low, Canadian researchers reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Although 77 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine have already been delivered this fall, distribution delays have left some providers empty-handed, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to intensify its message on the benefits of late-season vaccination.

(CIDRAP News) – Two new human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, one of them fatal, were reported in Indonesia today, raising the country's toll to 74 cases with 56 deaths.

A 30-month-old boy from Karawang in West Java province died of the illness today, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported, citing information from the Indonesian health ministry. The boy became ill Nov 5 and was hospitalized Nov 10.

(CIDRAP News) – China said today it would share more avian influenza virus samples, despite reported misuse of some shared previously, and repeated its rejection of a report that a new strain of H5N1 virus has spread through southern China, according to news services.