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(CIDRAP News) – Eleven new outbreaks of avian influenza in birds were reported in Romania today, as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) prepared for a major conference on the role of wild birds in spreading the virus worldwide.

(CIDRAP News) – For the first time, evidence suggests that the H5N1 avian influenza virus may have passed from one person to another and on to a third, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) official.

Referring to the extended-family case cluster in Indonesia, the WHO's Maria Cheng told the Canadian Press (CP) yesterday, "This is the first time we have seen cases that have gone beyond one generation of human-to-human spread."

(CIDRAP News) – All seven confirmed cases of H5N1 avian influenza in the family cluster in Indonesia involved "close and prolonged exposure" to another infected person, suggesting person-to-person transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Romanian officials today lifted quarantines that had sealed off more than 14,000 people in Bucharest over worries sparked by two outbreaks of avian influenza in birds, but one small area remained closed, according to news agencies.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States is sending a load of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to an undisclosed site in Asia for use in fighting a possible avian influenza pandemic, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Clinicians should use oseltamivir (Tamiflu) as first-line treatment for H5N1 avian influenza, but they should consider giving one of the older antiviral drugs along with it in some circumstances, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.

(CIDRAP news) – Dr. Lee Jong-wook, 61, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) died this morning following emergency surgery for subdural hematoma (a blood clot on his brain) May 20. He never regained consciousness, according to a Reuters story today.

Lee, appointed director-general in 2003, had been spearheading the WHO's efforts against avian flu, HIV, and other significant infectious diseases.

(CIDRAP news) – Local tests indicate that two more Indonesians have died of H5N1 avian influenza—one of them from the extended family case cluster still being investigated in northern Sumatra, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP news) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that a 12-year-old Indonesian boy from East Jakarta died of avian influenza.

The boy was not part of the extended family case cluster in northern Sumatra that involved at least six people, five of whom died. Officials are still investigating the source of that outbreak and whether it involved human-to-human transmission.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today it needs $308 million to fight avian influenza over the next 3 years, more than twice the amount estimated a few months ago.

The announcement came as Denmark confirmed its first H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in domestic poultry. In initial reports yesterday, officials said the virus had been identified only as an H5.

(CIDRAP News) – An international team of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) arrived today on Indonesia's Sumatra island to investigate the largest cluster to date of confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, according to news services.

In addition, the WHO reported today that a 75-year-old Egyptian woman died of H5N1 infection, becoming the sixth fatality in Egypt.

(CIDRAP News) – Romania has fired two top veterinary officials and arrested a private veterinarian amid spreading outbreaks of avian influenza in the past 2 days, according to news agencies.

Meanwhile, Denmark has found an H5 avian flu virus in domestic birds for the first time, and Nigeria is reporting a new outbreak of H5N1 in poultry after a lull of several weeks, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(CIDRAP News) – The intranasal influenza vaccine FluMist proved to be 55% more effective than an injectable vaccine in a phase 3 trial of children aged 6 months to about 5 years, according to a press release from MedImmune, maker of FluMist.

The study, involving 8,475 children at 249 sites in 16 countries, was presented May 1 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in San Francisco.

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization officials have confirmed five cases of H5N1 avian influenza in an Indonesian family in North Sumatra, plus a fatal case in a woman from East Java, news services reported today.

Additionally, Indonesia's health ministry said local tests revealed the H5N1 strain in a 12-year-old Jakarta boy who died 4 days ago, according to a Reuters report. This case, however, has yet to be confirmed by the WHO.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers in Thailand recently reported that they isolated live H5N1 avian influenza virus from the blood of a 5-year-old boy, an unusual finding that raises concern about possible transmission of the virus via blood.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian authorities have attributed the deaths of five members of one extended family to H5N1 avian influenza, and three surviving relatives are also suspected of having the virus, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – An analysis of more than 600 H5N1 avian influenza viruses collected from several Asian countries suggests that two older antiviral drugs could be more useful in fighting a flu pandemic triggered by H5N1 than previously believed.

(CIDRAP News) – A 2-year-old girl from a small rural village in Djibouti, on the border of Somalia, has been found to have the country's first case of H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP news) – In a human trial in France, an experimental H5N1 avian influenza vaccine with an adjuvant showed modestly better performance at a lower dose compared with a similar H5N1 vaccine that was tested earlier in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – VaxGen Inc., maker of a new anthrax vaccine for the US civilian stockpile, announced yesterday that delivery of the first doses will be delayed at least a year beyond the original target date of November 2006.