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(CIDRAP News) – Deaths from H5N1 avian influenza were reported today in two women, one from southern China and the other from Vietnam, as officials in Egypt announced that a 4-year-old girl has been hospitalized with an H5N1 infection.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in China announced today that the H5N1 avian influenza virus has struck poultry in the southwestern part of the country, a day after new outbreaks were reported in Pakistan, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity was widespread in 49 US states by the end of last week, up from 44 states a week earlier, but the epidemic's growth was not as dramatic as it was the previous week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – With many of the influenza viruses now infecting people not matched well by this year's flu vaccine, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee recommended yesterday that producers use three new flu strains in next season's vaccine, replacing all three components of this year's version.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is a collaborating laboratory for the World Health Organization (WHO), today said Indonesia's health ministry is sending 15 H5N1 influenza samples for virus characterization, the first the country has shared since last year.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a new fatal H5N1 avian influenza case in Vietnam and confirmed three cases reported earlier in Indonesia and China, while Chinese authorities today reported still another fatal case.

(CIDRAP News) – Officials at Texas A&M University announced yesterday that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has accepted the school's offer to pay a $1 million fine in connection with a 2007 report on several safety violations at its biodefense laboratory.

(CIDRAP News) – The distribution of more than $5 billion in federal funds since 2001 has greatly improved states' preparedness to deal with disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and other public health emergencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in a first-of-its-kind assessment.

(CIDRAP News) – FluWiki, an online resource and community forum, has its finger on the pulse of pandemic influenza planning issues and avian flu news, but today it featured something unusual: a dialogue with a top federal science advisor who's directly involved in the government's pandemic preparations.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials said today that a 22-year-old man died of H5N1 avian influenza in the country's first reported case this year, as health ministries in Indonesia and Vietnam reported three more H5N1 infections, two of them fatal.

(CIDRAP News) – A California meatpacking company has issued the largest meat recall in US history—143.4 million pounds—after revelations that the firm mistreated cattle and violated the federal ban on putting disabled or "downer" cattle into the human food supply.

(CIDRAP News) – Livestock officials in Pakistan said yesterday that the H5N1 avian influenza virus hit chickens in the northwestern part of the country, the region where December outbreaks were linked to suspected human-to-human transmission of the virus and Pakistan's first confirmed human case.

(CIDRAP News) – The current influenza season is showing signs of becoming a tough one, with flu activity now widespread in 44 states and many of the circulating viruses differing from those in the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from Vietnam's health ministry said today that a 27-year-old man whose samples recently tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza died of the disease last night, the country's second fatality in as many days.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported evidence of a less-than-satisfactory match between all three components of this season's influenza vaccine and the flu strains currently making people sick.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Vietnam reported today that the H5N1 virus has struck two men in two of the country's northern provinces, killing a 40-year-old and sickening a 27-year-old, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture is proposing a big increase in spending to protect the US food and agriculture system from terrorist threats and other disasters in fiscal year 2009, while seeking somewhat less money for avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – The Sunshine Project, a nonprofit group that has monitored biological weapons developments and helped expose safety breaches at several US biodefense research facilities, announced on Feb 1 that it had ceased operations.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that a 15-year-old girl from Indonesia is hospitalized in critical condition with an H5N1 avian influenza infection, a week after her mother's H5N1 illness was announced.

The girl, who is from West Jakarta, got sick on Feb 2 and was hospitalized 6 days later, according to a statement from the WHO. She is listed as Indonesia's 127th case-patient.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Laos have reported an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in poultry in a northwestern province, the country's first outbreak in about a year.