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(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry announced that a 16-year-old girl from West Java province is hospitalized with H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. This development follows new media revelations about details relating to recently confirmed H5N1 patients in China and Pakistan.

(CIDRAP News) – Disease experts and preparedness advocates reacted negatively today to comments by the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) suggesting that the risk of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian flu virus is minimal.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States could be the next country to experience an epidemic of dengue illnesses if the disease keeps aggressively expanding, senior officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) warned this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in the United Kingdom today announced that samples from three mute swans found dead at a swan sanctuary in Dorset County on England's southwest coast tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – A British woman who died of a brain disease suggestive of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD) had a genetic marker not seen in any previous vCJD patients, raising the possibility that her illness represented a new form of the disease that could signal a new wave of infections, according to a recent research report.

(CIDRAP News) – A RAND Corporation study of how well local health departments handle telephone reports of urgent disease cases found that the best performers had a live person answering calls at all hours.

Editor's note: This story was revised Jan 8 to correct information about the location of the test's manufacturer.

(CIDRAP News) – A single test that can identify up to 12 different respiratory viruses, including three kinds of influenza, from one sample has won the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) approval.

Editor’s Note: This article was modified Jan 8 to include more information about the Acambis preclinical study.

(CIDRAP News) – British technology company Acambis yesterday announced positive results for a phase 1 clinical trial of an influenza vaccine that it hopes could guard against seasonal and pandemic flu strains and end the need to reformulate the flu vaccine each year.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Israel today notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of an H5 avian influenza outbreak at a site near Haifa, and media outlets are reporting that final tests have confirmed the virus is the lethal H5N1subtype.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) today shared results of initial genetic sequencing tests on H5N1 avian influenza samples from a man who died of the disease in Pakistan that suggest the strain doesn't have the capacity for widespread transmission.

Editor's Note: CIDRAP's Promising Practices: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Tools online database showcases peer-reviewed practices, including useful tools to help others with their planning. This article is one of a biweekly series exploring the development of these practices. We hope that describing the process and context of these practices enhances pandemic planning.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials recently issued an alert about a woman with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) who flew from India to the United States in mid December, and efforts are under way to locate and test several of her fellow passengers for the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Egyptian officials announced two new deaths from H5N1 avian influenza in women from the Nile Delta, along with what appears to be a third death involving a 50-year-old woman whose infection was previously confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed three human cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Vietnam and Egypt, one of which was fatal, raising the global H5N1 count to 346 cases with 213 deaths.

In Vietnam, a 4-year-old boy from the northern province of Son La died of an H5N1 infection Dec 16, the WHO said. He fell ill Dec 7 and was hospitalized on the 11th. His case was first reported by news services on Dec 26.

(CIDRAP News) – A health official in Uganda said yesterday that the Ebola outbreak in the western part of the country is receding, though it's too soon to say the disease has been contained, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced its first confirmation of a human case of H5N1 avian influenza in Pakistan, in a young man who was part of a family cluster of suspected cases and died of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Germany, Poland, and Russia recently reported fresh outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry, according to media accounts and reports from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

(CIDRAP News) – A young woman in Egypt and another of almost the same age in Indonesia died of H5N1 avian influenza yesterday, raising the global H5N1 death toll to 211, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Also, a Vietnamese official said a boy who died recently in northern Vietnam had the H5N1 virus, according to an Associated Press (AP) report published today. The WHO has not yet confirmed his case.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today there has been no evidence of more cases of H5N1 avian influenza in the wake of a recent case cluster in Pakistan, as news services reported at least five suspected H5N1 cases in an Indonesian family.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday issued a public health alert about ground beef products that may be contaminated with a multidrug-resistant form of Salmonella that has sickened 38 people in four western states.