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(CIDRAP News) – Fewer than half of physicians who responded to a survey at a recent conference in Europe said they thought an influenza pandemic was very likely in the next few years, according to a report in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

(CIDRAP News) – US officials have announced the award of a $500 million contract to Bavarian Nordic A/S, a Danish firm, for 20 million doses of a smallpox vaccine that's expected to be safe for people with weakened immune systems.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration recently released separate documents outlining the kinds of clinical data required for licensing of new seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines.

In a May 31 news release, the agency said the guidance documents were designed to facilitate the rapid development and approval of new vaccines by outlining the regulatory pathways for companies.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnam's health ministry announced over the weekend that a poultry slaughterhouse worker was being treated for H5N1 avian influenza, and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed today that China's most recent H5N1 patient has died.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials announced today that a 15-year-old girl from Central Java died of H5N1 avian influenza this week, as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that it received two human H5N1 samples from China, ending a nearly year-long delay in sharing promised samples.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released a detailed report on the recent nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to certain peanut butter brands, showing the number of sick patients has grown by nearly 200 since the agency's last update in March.

(CIDRAP News) – As information piled up in the case of a man with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis (TB) who took multiple international air trips, it was revealed today that he is a lawyer and the son-in-law of a microbiologist who studies TB at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – VaxGen Inc., which lost an $877.5 million contract with the US government for a new anthrax vaccine in December, announced May 24 it was stopping development of the vaccine and said it hopes to license the product to another company.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister said yesterday that Baxter Healthcare Corp would launch a clinical trial of an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine in Indonesia in July, according to news reports, but a Baxter official said the company has not announced any clinical trials.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Indonesia reported today that a 45-year-old man from Central Java province died of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country's second fatal case in less than 2 weeks.

Joko Suyono of the Indonesian health ministry's avian flu center said the man was hospitalized May 17 and died 2 days ago, Reuters reported today.

(CIDRAP News) - Four people in Wales and northwest England have tested positive for the low-pathogenic H7N2 avian influenza subtype found last week in chickens at a small farm in Wales, and local public health authorities suspect some degree of human-to-human transmission of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – A 19-year-old Chinese soldier is being treated for H5N1 avian influenza, while a woman who was diagnosed with the disease in February has left the hospital after months of treatment, according to reports from China.

(CIDRAP News) – In a rare action, federal health authorities have ordered an Atlanta man who has extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) into isolation and are looking for people who recently flew with him so they can be tested for the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Some of the H5N1 avian flu virus samples from human cases that China has promised to send to a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory have arrived in the United States, apparently ending an almost year-long lapse in sample sharing.

(CIDRAP News) – Farmers, airlines, and salmon fishermen stood to benefit when Congress passed a modestly trimmed emergency spending bill yesterday, but pandemic influenza preparedness lost out.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary officials in Wales confirmed a low pathogenic H7N2 avian influenza outbreak today at a farm near the northern town of Denbighshire, a day after Nigeria reported its first H5N1 avian flu outbreak since late January.

The world of pandemic influenza preparedness this past week experienced another roller-coaster ride of public attention—and a lack thereof.

(CIDRAP News) – As expected, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved a resolution on the sharing of influenza viruses and access to pandemic vaccines just before adjourning its annual meeting of member countries today.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia announced today that a 5-year-old girl died of H5N1 avian influenza, while a hospital official in Vietnam reported that a 30-year-old man is being treated for the disease, apparently marking the country's first human case in a year and a half.

(CIDRAP News) – H5N1 avian influenza has continued to flare up in poultry on two continents this week, with Vietnam, Ghana, and Pakistan all confirming new outbreaks in the past 2 days.

In Vietnam over the weekend, more than 2,000 ducks died, and another 6,000 were culled in various areas affected by outbreaks of H5N1, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported yesterday. The ducks had not been vaccinated.