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(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister said today the government has stopped the practice of promptly notifying global health officials each time it confirms a human H5N1 avian influenza case or death, a move some say will likely hamper efforts to monitor the world's pandemic risk level.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in England yesterday announced that chicken deaths at a farm in Oxfordshire were caused by an H7 form of avian influenza, while a poultry company in Arkansas reported that chickens at a large commercial farm tested positive for antibodies to a low-pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian flu.

(CIDRAP News) – Tomatoes are the likely culprit in 57 recent cases of Salmonella infection in New Mexico and Texas, and another 29 cases in seven other states may be part of the same outbreak, according to federal health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – Proposed pandemic preparedness guidance released by the federal government today recommends that people wear face masks if they have to go into crowds during an influenza pandemic and says critical infrastructure businesses should consider stockpiling antiviral drugs, among various other suggestions.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it is allocating states and major metropolitan areas $1.1 billion to strengthen public health preparedness and help healthcare facilities respond to emergency events such as an influenza pandemic or terrorist attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the release of complete genetic data for 150 avian influenza viruses in an effort to connect genetic information with the biological effects of the viruses and to improve diagnostic tests.

(CIDRAP News) –The World Health Assembly (WHA) recently approved a global strategy for managing intellectual property issues and made progress on a draft action plan that was presented by a World Health Organization (WHO) working group.

The WHA, which consists of delegates from all WHO member states and serves as the agency's policy-making arm, met in Geneva from May 19 to 23.

(CIDRAP News) – A survey of North Carolina families affected by a 10-day school closure due to a sharp rise in influenza-related absences found that the measure didn't cause families major hardships, but many did not heed a recommendation to avoid large gatherings.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have found evidence that North American avian influenza viruses of the H7 subtype are becoming more like human flu viruses in their ability to attach to host cells, which suggests they may be improving their capacity to infect humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that a 16-month-old boy from Bangladesh had an H5N1 avian influenza infection in January but has since recovered.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister asserted yesterday that 112 other nations at a meeting in Geneva last week expressed support for her country's position on avian influenza virus sharing, according to an Indonesian newspaper.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal agencies that play key food safety roles recently held a public meeting to clarify the obstacles public health officials encounter in investigating foodborne disease outbreaks and to build support for measures to improve the process.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more wild swans infected with H5N1 avian influenza were found in Japan this week, and authorities in South Korea said H5N1 viruses found in chickens there closely matched an earlier isolate from swans in Japan.

(CIDRAP News) – A team of food safety researchers, flanked by federal, state, and industry officials, today unveiled a sweeping report on how food safety information is shared and called for new federal policies to make the system more transparent and useful.

(CIDRAP News) – Bangladesh has become the 15th country to have a human case of H5N1 avian influenza, this one in a 16-month-old boy who became ill in January but recovered, according to news services.

The boy's case was confirmed only yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Saluddin Khan, a government official. The child is from Dhaka, the capital, the story said.

(CIDRAP News) – In a move to bolster consumer confidence in the safety of US beef and prevent mistreatment of cattle, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer yesterday announced plans to close a regulatory loophole that permits some disabled cattle to be used for food.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently offered another antibiotic option for combating inhalational anthrax in children by approving the quinolone drug levofloxacin (Levaquin).

In a letter dated May 5, the FDA endorsed the use of levofloxacin, made by Ortho-McNeil, in children 6 months of age and older. The agency had approved use of the drug for postexposure treatment of anthrax in adults in 2004.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's recent announcement that it would immediately begin sharing H5N1 avian influenza genetic sequences with a new public database is being hailed by experts as a promising development, though there is a concern that having actual virus isolates would be better.

Indonesia's decision, announced by Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, was detailed in a May 15 report from the Associated Press (AP).

(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 influenza vaccine made by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has become the first prepandemic vaccine to be licensed by the European Union (EU), the company announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – A year after the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the development of an international stockpile of vaccines against H5N1 influenza, the stockpile has not yet materialized, the WHO said in a report released today.