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(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza is continuing its spread among birds in many countries worldwide, with widespread outbreaks reported in Myanmar.

More than 100 outbreaks have occurred in poultry in Myanmar (formerly Burma) since the presence of H5N1 avian flu was announced there about a month ago, officials from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told Reuters news service yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Recognizing that an influenza pandemic may disproportionately affect refugees and internally displaced people, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines for humanitarian organizations working with such populations.

(CIDRAP News) – Under a schedule laid out yesterday by federal agriculture officials, a nationwide livestock identification system to help in the investigation and control of animal disease outbreaks will be fully operational by 2009.

(CIDRAP News) – Deadly H5N1 avian influenza has infected a swan found on the coast of Scotland, the first time the virus has turned up in a wild bird in the British Isles, news services reported today.

The news came as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that efforts to control avian flu on poultry farms "are slowly proving successful," especially in Thailand, Vietnam, and China.

(CIDRAP News) – The human toll of avian influenza in Egypt rose to 11 cases today with reports that an 18-year-old girl has died and an 8-year-old boy is hospitalized with the illness.

(CIDRAP News) – Cooking poultry to a temperature of 165°F will ensure it is safe to eat, though higher heat may be desirable for the sake of taste or appearance, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Growing evidence of H5N1 avian influenza in cats suggests they may play a role in spreading the virus, signaling a need for new precautions, according to a team of medical and veterinary researchers from the Netherlands and Italy.

April 5, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – Avian flu has resurfaced in two countries, killing a 12-year-old boy in Cambodia and sickening a little girl in Egypt, according to news services.

The Cambodian boy died last night, said Michael O'Leary, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Phnom Penh, who was quoted in a Reuters report today. The boy was from the southeastern province of Prey Veng, adjoining Vietnam.

April 4, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The H5N1 virus has sneaked across another border, making Burkina Faso the fifth African nation to lose poultry to the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – The H5N1 avian influenza virus caused the deaths of two Indonesian girls, one late last month and the other dating back to July 2005, authorities said today.

A 20-month-old girl from Kapuk, West Jakarta, who died on Mar 23, suffered from a fatal H5N1 infection, bringing to 30 the number of human cases of the illness in Indonesia. Twenty-three of those people died of the disease.

April 3, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The deaths of four Egyptians have been laid at the door of avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed today, while Egyptian officials' case tally has reached twice that number.

In addition, an Egyptian was diagnosed with avian flu in Jordan late last week, though he contracted the disease in Egypt, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia has confirmed a case of H5N1 avian influenza in a 1-year-old girl who died last week, and the illness is suspected in another Indonesian and in a teenager in Azerbaijan, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The first experimental US vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza yielded only modest results in its first clinical trial, generating an adequate immune response in slightly more than half of participants who received a heavy dose, scientists report.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the use of the antiviral drug zanamivir (Relenza) to prevent—not just treat—influenza in adults and children aged 5 and older.

(CIDRAP News) – A second Egyptian has died of H5N1 avian influenza, and the virus may have infected a mink in Sweden, according to recent reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers have announced a new approach to making a vaccine for the foodborne illness listeriosis that may also bode well for fighting certain other infections, including salmonellosis and tuberculosis.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who looked for mild or asymptomatic human cases of H5N1 avian influenza following an outbreak in Cambodia last year didn't find any, challenging the view that human cases have gone undetected, according to findings presented last week.

(CIDRAP News) – As tests were pending to determine whether a 1-year-old child in Jakarta is Indonesia's 23rd fatality from avian influenza, other suspected human cases were under investigation today in Egypt and Iraq.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza has killed a 3-year-old girl in Cambodia and a 29-year-old woman in China, pushing the global toll from the H5N1 virus to 105 deaths out of 186 cases, the World Health Organization announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza spread quickly in the Middle East this week, with news of a poultry outbreak in the Gaza Strip two days ago followed by outbreaks in the occupied West Bank yesterday and in Jordan today. The outbreaks followed the discovery of poultry cases in Israel last week.