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(CIDRAP News) – Two research reports on plague were recently released, one describing the mechanism that the plague bacterium uses to evade the body's immune system and the other describing a potential vaccine that was tested successfully in mice.

(CIDRAP News) – Nursing homes that serve Medicare and Medicaid recipients would have to vaccinate residents against influenza and pneumococcal disease to stay in the federal programs, under a plan announced last week.

Nursing homes would have to give the immunizations unless the patient or patient's family refused or the shots were medically contraindicated, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of a mild form of avian influenza was reported in Japan today, as the World Health Organization (WHO) voiced concern about the recent spread of H5N1 avian flu to Russia and Kazakhstan.

(CIDRAP News) – Russian workers were slaughtering thousands of birds today in an effort to contain avian influenza, while another possible outbreak was reported to the south in Kazakhstan.

(CIDRAP News) – The outbreak of an unusual pig-related disease in China might be nearly spent, and evidence continued to point to Streptococcus suis as the cause, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

Editor's note: This story was revised Aug 17 to add information on funding and a link to the government's request for proposals to supply the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government has called for proposals to supply up to 80 million doses of a weakened smallpox vaccine to protect people for whom the conventional vaccine is too risky, according to two vaccine manufacturers.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza has cropped up in chickens near Russia's Ural Mountains, possibly signaling a continued westward march of the deadly H5N1 virus, news services in Russia reported today.

The Chelyabinsk region along the southern end of the Urals is the sixth area in Russia to have been hit by avian flu outbreaks recently, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters. The Urals separate Siberia from European Russia.

(CIDRAP News) – A week-long meeting of Asian nations just finished in Bangkok resulted in consensus that regional stockpiles of antivirals should be amassed for fast use in the influenza pandemic that is widely expected to emerge from the avian flu strain now circulating.

Editor's note: This article was revised Aug 15, 2005, to include additional information regarding earlier related research.

(CIDRAP News) – Both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have said in the past day that Tibet has reported its first cases of avian influenza in poultry.

Aug 11, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – Government officials and scientists yesterday recognized the formal opening of construction on a laboratory that will house research on the most dangerous emerging infectious diseases and potential bioterrorism agents.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports from Vietnam say a 35-year-old man who died Jul 31 had H5N1 avian influenza, although official confirmation from the Ministry of Health is still to come.

(CIDRAP News) – Positive results from a human vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu that is the prime candidate for causing the next influenza pandemic came out of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this weekend. Still, the challenges to producing such a vaccine in the quantities needed in an actual pandemic lend a dose of reality to the news.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports from China today put the number of human cases of the baffling disease spreading through pigs in several areas at high as 212, with some 134 people still hospitalized and at least 14 considered critical. The number of deaths so far stands at 38.

(CIDRAP News) – Three more cases of H5N1 avian influenza in Vietnam, two of them fatal, were officially recognized today by the World Health Organization (WHO) after confirmation came from that country's Health Ministry, bringing the count to 90 cases with 40 deaths.

(CIDRAP News) – What looked like the possible third case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States has now been confirmed as a false alarm, leaving the number of domestic cattle infected with the disease at two, with one of those being Canadian-born.

(CIDRAP News) –Weather and soil conditions in several areas of the United States are leading to record livestock losses from anthrax. This summer, approximately 400 animals have died in North and South Dakota, Texas, and Minnesota.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers relying on mathematical modeling claim that early containment of pandemic influenza, an eventuality widely accepted as not an "if" but a "when," may well be attainable through targeted public health strategies. A leading public health expert, however, cautions against viewing these study results as fodder for relaxed planning efforts, stressing the myriad variables that would come into play.

(CIDRAP News) – Mass culling of domestic poultry in 13 villages in the Novosibirsk province of Russia is reportedly being carried out today. In addition, thousands of area families are being checked daily for illness, and farmers have been ordered to wear protective garments in an effort to contain the avian influenza outbreak there.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports on the mysterious pig-borne disease spreading among humans in China are numerous, with the number of cases closing in on 200 and fatalities standing at 34.