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(CIDRAP News) – A study of antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter levels on retail chicken products suggests that the pathogen lingers in chickens long after antibiotic use among the birds is stopped.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza vaccination coverage among people in high-risk groups this season was similar to levels in past years, signaling that the government's effort to make the most of the limited vaccine supply paid off, federal health officials reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States will probably have enough influenza vaccine to meet the demand from people in high-risk groups next season, but it's unclear if there will be enough for everyone who wants a shot, federal health officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Initial testing indicates that all five members of a family of chicken farmers near Haiphong, Vietnam, have avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) and news services said today.

(CIDRAP News) – North Korea yesterday confirmed recent reports of an avian influenza outbreak among poultry, but officials did not specify whether it involved the H5N1 virus, which has struck nine other Asian countries in the past 16 months.

(CIDRAP News) – The death toll in the Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Angola has risen to 122, just one fewer than in the largest previous outbreak of the disease, according to news reports from Africa.

(CIDRAP News) – Two new studies give reason to hope that vaccines prepared in advance could be of some help in combating an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – A teen-age girl with no known exposure to infected poultry has died of H5N1 avian influenza, and a 40-year-old woman has tested positive for the virus, Vietnamese authorities said today.

(CIDRAP News) – A 28-year-old man has become Cambodia's second person to die of avian influenza, health authorities there announced today.

Three universities have begun recruiting volunteers for the first US clinical trial of a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza, a key piece of the government's efforts to stave off a potential flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory tests have shown Marburg virus to be the cause of a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in northern Angola, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – An unidentified hemorrhagic fever appears to be targeting children younger than 5 in an outbreak in the African country of Angola.

At least 39 people are believed to have died of the suspected hemorrhagic fever syndrome in the northern province of Uige between January and mid-March, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Mar 17.

(CIDRAP News) – A Vietnamese newspaper has reported that 195 people in an area affected by H5N1 avian influenza have suspicious symptoms and are being tested for the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – A 5-year-old boy from central Vietnam has tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, becoming the 25th Vietnamese to contract the disease since late December, according to a Vietnamese newspaper.

The boy, named Hoang Trong Duong, is from Quang Binh province and was hospitalized Mar 15 in Hue with high fever, cough, and lung infection, according to Than Nien News, a Ho Chi Minh City newspaper. He was in stable condition.

(CIDRAP News) – This week's health warnings about soft cheeses made from unpasteurized milk were based on 35 recent cases of tuberculosis in New York City that are believed to have been linked to raw-milk products.

(CIDRAP News) – The causes of this week's anthrax alarms in the Washington, DC, area remained a mystery today as criticisms about communication and coordination by the Department of Defense (DoD) flew.

Editor's note: Based on a Food and Drug Administration news release, the original version of this story incorrectly listed Ranchero as one type of soft cheese that may be made from raw milk The FDA later issued a clarification saying that Ranchero is a trademark of the Cacique Co. of Industry, Calif., for a cheese made with pasteurized milk.

(CIDRAP News) – The anthrax alert that shut down several government buildings in the Washington, DC, area this week and put hundreds of workers on preventive antibiotic treatment apparently was a false alarm.

Testing of more than 70 samples from a mail facility near the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and a mailroom at an office complex in nearby Falls Church, Va., showed no trace of anthrax, the Washington Post reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Signs of anthrax detected by sensors at two military mail facilities in the Washington, DC, area yesterday prompted authorities to shut down several buildings and recommend antibiotics for hundreds of workers.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said today it has found 130 suspected cases of plague, 57 of them fatal, in its ongoing investigation of an outbreak in the northeastern Congo.

In its previous update on Mar 9, the agency had reported 114 cases, including 54 deaths.