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(CIDRAP News) – A routine government safety review of the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) revealed 12 deaths in Japanese children who were taking it, but a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel concluded today that the deaths were not related to it.

(CIDRAP News) – Numerous Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreaks have occurred in Great Britain, France, and the United States in the past 2 months.

According to news sources, approximately 200 infections and one death have been reported to health authorities. In most cases, local outbreak control teams have found mass-produced contaminated meat to be the cause, and they are working to set strict guidelines to limit the contagion.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to keep its expanded testing program for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) going indefinitely instead of scaling it back at the end of this year, according to recent reports.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said he wants the department to continue testing about 1,000 cattle a day, according to a Nov 12 Associated Press (AP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – Tests have confirmed that a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman who died in Indonesia last week had avian influenza, raising Indonesia's case tally to 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The announcement follows China's report yesterday of its first two confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian flu on the mainland. The WHO has registered a total of 130 cases, including 67 deaths, since December 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent laboratory study has produced more evidence that infection of human lung cells with the H5N1 avian influenza virus leads to intense inflammation similar to what was seen in victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – China today reported two confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the first time the government has confirmed cases on the mainland.

The disease was confirmed in a 9-year-old boy from Hunan province, who has recovered, and in a 24-year-old woman from Anhui province, who died Nov 10, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

(CIDRAP News) – Investigation of an avian influenza outbreak points to a shipment of finches from Taiwan as the carriers of the H5N1 virus found in a quarantine facility in Sussex, England.

(CIDRAP News) – China's announcement today that it plans to vaccinate all of its poultry against H5N1 avian influenza would launch the country on the largest single immunization effort in history for any species, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official.

News of the vaccination plan came even as China reported two more poultry outbreaks, these in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

(CIDRAP News) – In China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, countries widely seen as ground zero in the global fight against H5N1 avian influenza, efforts to quash the virus are hampered by the lack of a key weapon: money.

(CIDRAP News) – A new suspected case of H5N1 avian influenza was reported in Indonesia today, while still another poultry outbreak was reported in China, its ninth in the past month.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the avian flu case reported in an 18-month-old boy in Thailand last week, while Thai officials said the boy's grandmother has tested negative for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand has reported its 21st human case of H5N1 avian influenza, while an infected flamingo was found in Kuwait and new poultry outbreaks surfaced in China, according to news reports today.

An 18-month-old boy in Bangkok was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus today, but he was already well on the way to recovery, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Thawat Sunthrajarn, Thailand's disease control director.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has no current plans to release the reconstructed version of the virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic to other laboratories, the head of the CDC said yesterday, but she did not rule out the possibility.

(CIDRAP News) – After a harrowing year of trying to stop the spread of the lethal Marburg virus, Angola has declared itself free of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Scattered shortages of influenza vaccine have occurred this fall in the face of increased demand, but everyone who wants a shot should be able to get one before long, the nation's top disease-control official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese authorities said that the country's avian influenza outbreaks aren't fully controlled and that use of substandard poultry vaccines could lead to disaster, while Indonesia has added another likely human case to its avian flu tally, according to news reports today.

(CIDRAP News) – Concluding a major conference on avian and pandemic influenza today, health officials reported a new level of international agreement on the need to confront the threat and released a list of key steps to do that.

(CIDRAP News) – A 35-year-old man from Hanoi has become the 42nd Vietnamese to die of H5N1 avian influenza, while the number of suspected cases in Indonesia continued to grow, news services reported today.

Samples taken from the man were positive for the H5N1 virus, according to tests performed at the National Institute of Epidemiology in Hanoi, health ministry official Tran Duc Long told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(CIDRAP News) – The United States proposed today that a small group of experts be appointed immediately to plan a fast response in case an influenza pandemic erupts, as an international conference on avian and pandemic flu continued in Geneva.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more human cases of H5N1 infection—one of which was fatal—have been confirmed in Indonesia, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

A 19-year-old woman in Tangerang, near Jakarta, fell ill on Oct 19, was hospitalized on Oct 26, and died two days later, WHO said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – The Asian Development Bank estimated this week that an influenza pandemic in Asia could kill 3 million people and possibly trigger a world recession, as the World Health Organization (WHO) geared up for a major conference on global strategy for limiting the pandemic threat.