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(CIDRAP News) China reported today that a 9-year-old girl died 2 days ago of H5N1 avian influenza, becoming the country's 10th person to succumb to the virus.
The girl, whose case was announced Feb 27, lived in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. She fell ill on Feb 10 and was in critical condition by the time her case was made public.
(CIDRAP News) A second vaccine against human H5N1 influenza is being developed, US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt announced yesterday.
In a speech at an immunization conference, Leavitt announced that he has authorized the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to start work on a second vaccine, according to an Associated Press (AP) report published yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) To help consumers identify meat and poultry products that are being recalled because of contamination or some other hazard, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing to publish the names of retail stores that have carried the products.
(CIDRAP News) As the H5N1 avian influenza virus continued to claim human victims, World Health Organization (WHO) and other experts met in Geneva today for a 3-day conference to hone the agency's pandemic response plan.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced a new initiative to reduce Salmonella contamination in raw meat and poultry, mainly by focusing more effort on processing facilities that need improvement and reporting test results faster.
(CIDRAP News) The European expansion of H5N1 avian influenza continued with discovery of the virus in two swans in Poland, while three cats in an Austrian animal shelter tested positive for the virus as well, according to reports today.
A Polish laboratory identified the virus in two swans found dead in the northern city of Torun, news services reported. The cases were the first ones reported in Poland.
(CIDRAP News) Public health experts will meet in Geneva next week to continue developing the World Health Organization's (WHO's) draft plan for quick action to head off a potential influenza pandemic.
The WHO announced the meeting as a Hong Kong official reported another possible human case of H5N1 avian flu in China, involving a 32-year-old man who died yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week proposed voluntary guidelines to help food processors reduce the risk of pathogenic contamination of fresh-cut produce such as bagged salads and sliced pineapple.
Fresh produce has been blamed for a growing share of foodborne disease outbreaks in recent years, and in October 2004 the FDA announced an action plan for reducing disease risks linked to produce.
(CIDRAP News) China's vice premier said today that China may see more bird outbreaks and human cases of avian influenza this spring, as the government announced plans for an intensive hunt for cases among wild birds on a major migration route, according to news services.
(CIDRAP News) US health officials announced today they have ordered more than 14 million treatment courses of two antiviral drugs to add to the 5.5 million courses already bought in preparation for a possible influenza pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) Global and US health authorities have recommended two new influenza virus strains for use in the flu vaccine for the 2006-07 season.
(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory testing in the case of the New York City drum maker who recently contracted anthrax has supported the belief that he inhaled anthrax spores while working with contaminated animal hides, according to federal health officials.
(CIDRAP News) Europe braced for further spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus today in the wake of reports that the virus was suspected in the deaths of two wild ducks on Sweden's Baltic coast and a domestic cat in Germany.
The cat was discovered last weekend on Ruegen, the island off Germany's north coast where H5N1 was first discovered on German soil, according to a Reuters report.
(CIDRAP News) A girl and a young woman in China have contracted avian influenza and are in critical condition, marking the 13th and 14th confirmed cases there, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.
In addition, the WHO recognized a fatal human case of avian flu that was reported last week in Indonesia. The WHO's current global count of human bird flu cases is 173, including 93 deaths.
(CIDRAP News) More than half of Americans are concerned about the threat of avian influenza reaching the United States, but few are "very concerned" and fewer still have looked into getting an antiviral drug to protect themselves, according to a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
(CIDRAP News) The H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread to Niger and Bosnia-Herzegovina, media outlets said today, and testing is under way on birds found dead in Switzerland, Pakistan, and Kenya.
(CIDRAP News) Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia today reported finding H5N1 avian influenza in swans, making Georgia the 16th country to report its first case this month.
Dead swans found in the village of Adliya, in the Black Sea coastal region of Adjara, tested positive, said Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, as quoted in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.
(CIDRAP News) H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds in yet another European country, Slovakia, while tests of samples from 95 people in India have revealed no cases of avian influenza so far, according to reports today.
(CIDRAP News) A federal advisory committee recommended yesterday that children aged 2 through 4 and their household contacts and caregivers get annual influenza shots, a move that increases the number of people included in official flu-immunization recommendations by more than 16 million.
(CIDRAP News) – A 44-year-old New York City man has inhalational anthrax—the first US case since 2001—possibly as a result of using African animal hides to make drums, Pennsylvania and federal officials announced today.
