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(CIDRAP News) – A case of the often deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever was retrospectively identified in an American who fell ill after a trip to Uganda in January 2008 and eventually recovered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recently.

The case appears to be the first Marburg infection reported in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – At an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) symposium in Washington, DC, today on seasonal and pandemic influenza, a group of experts fielded questions from reporters on some of the new trends and emerging issues, including prepandemic strategies for H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, now that some countries are stockpiling them.

(CIDRAP News) – The case count in the nationwide Salmonella outbreak tied to peanut butter climbed to 550 yesterday, as federal officials announced an effort to use "social media" such as podcasts and YouTube videos to keep consumers abreast of product recalls and other developments in the outbreak.

CIDRAP News – President Barack Obama called today for a "complete review" of the operations of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the wake of the ongoing outbreak of Salmonella in peanuts and peanut butter.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Vietnam reported a new H5N1 avian influenza outbreak today in a duck flock in the southern part of the country, as veterinary workers in India and Bangladesh took measures to stop the virus's spread following new outbreaks in both countries.

(CIDRAP News) – China's health ministry recently revealed that a 21-year-old woman from Hunan province is hospitalized with an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's seventh case so far this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration said today it is starting a criminal investigation of Peanut Corp. of America (PCA), the company whose peanut processing plant in Georgia has been linked with a Salmonella outbreak involving more than 500 cases nationwide.

The FDA announcement came amid a flurry of other developments related to the outbreak:

(CIDRAP News) – Minnesota health groups today unveiled two preliminary guidance reports designed to help the state make and implement difficult decisions about allocating scare resources such as antivirals, respirators, ventilators, and vaccines during a severe influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Yesterday the US House of Representatives passed an $819 billion economic stimulus bill that included funding for pandemic influenza and bioterrorism countermeasures, and now the Senate will debate its version of the measure, which also includes spending on some of the same items.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released its inspection findings on the Georgia peanut butter plant that has been linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak, saying the company shipped products that had initially tested positive for Salmonella and citing various other questionable practices.

(CIDRAP News) – Richard E. Besser, MD, who formerly directed terrorism preparedness and emergency response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was named last week as the agency's acting director.

Besser replaces Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, who had led the agency since July 2002 and stepped down as President Barack Obama took office last week.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in the Philippines recently announced that a worker who had contact with sick pigs tested positive for antibodies to the Ebola Reston virus, a pathogen that was discovered about a month ago for the first time in pigs.

Eric Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Centre, said the case represent the first known pig-to-human Ebola Reston virus transmission, according to a Jan 24 Associated Press (AP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – Health ministries in China and Egypt reported four new human H5N1 avian influenza cases over the past few days, including three from different parts of China, two of which were fatal.

Today's World Health Organization (WHO) confirmation of a case in a 2-year-old Egyptian girl pushed the global H5N1 case count to 400. If the WHO confirms all of the new cases and deaths, the total will rise to 403 cases, 254 of them fatal.

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian authorities have confirmed that an H5 avian influenza virus, probably low-pathogenic, has surfaced on a turkey farm in southern British Columbia.

Canadian news agencies said authorities were preparing to cull up to 60,000 turkeys on the farm near Abbotsford, southeast of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley.

(CIDRAP News) – A physician's report of diarrhea cases in a nursing home, followed by the discovery of cases in several other institutions, provided the key that enabled Minnesota disease detectives to figure out before anyone else that peanut butter was the culprit in the current nationwide Salmonella outbreak.

(CIDRAP News) – Canadian officials are investigating the possibility of an avian influenza outbreak at a turkey farm in British Columbia (BC), a day after animal health officials in Bangladesh reported the H5N1 virus struck three more sites.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary authorities in Egypt today reported H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in two governorates, as Chinese officials beefed up their avian flu reporting system and took other measures to limit human exposure to the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia has confirmed two more fatalities from H5N1 avian influenza, a 29-year-old woman and a 5- or 6-year-old girl, both of whom lived near the country's capital, Jakarta, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) – More than 125 products, including a few pet foods, have been included in recalls prompted by the nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter, and the list continues to grow, US officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – China's recent spike in human H5N1 avian influenza cases appears to lack the hallmark of nearby poultry outbreaks, a development that some public health officials worry could signal asymptomatic infections in birds.

Veterinary experts, however, suggest the pattern could point to surveillance gaps or the consequences of routine vaccination.