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(CIDRAP News) Two more human cases of H5N1 infectionone of which was fatalhave 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.
(CIDRAP News) About 9,000 chickens have died and close to 370,000 have been culled in China in the largest of several outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza reported this week in Asia.
(CIDRAP News) In the event of an influenza pandemic, medical and public health personnel and workers who make critical vaccines and drugs would have first call on scarce doses of vaccine, under the pandemic plan released by the federal government yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) US health officials focused largely on expanding supplies of vaccines and antiviral drugs today as they rolled out a lengthy plan for responding to a feared influenza pandemic that could kill an estimated 1.9 million Americans under worst-case assumptions.
Editor's Note: This is an expanded version of a story published earlier today ().
(CIDRAP News) – President George W. Bush today proposed $7.1 billion in spending to prepare for an influenza pandemic, including $5 billion for vaccines and drugs, as his administration released an outline of its preparedness strategy.
(CIDRAP News) As the World Health Organization noted Thailand's 20th human case of avian influenza, it offered details today of the circumstances around the 50-year-old woman's infection.
(CIDRAP News) Two major organizations of infectious disease experts today warned the public against hoarding oseltamivir (Tamiflu), saying the threat of an influenza pandemic is not high enough to warrant it.
(CIDRAP News) Thailand has confirmed its 20th human case of avian influenza, this time in a 50-year-old woman near Bangkok, according to the BBC today.
Thawat Suntrajarn, director general of the Thai Department of Disease Control told Agence France-Presse (AFP) today that the woman is "fine" and under treatment at a Bangkok Hospital.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) warned today that if H5N1 avian influenza spread to Africa and caused human cases, it "could push fragile health systems to the brink of collapse."
Also, China today ruled out H5N1 avian flu in the death of a girl who lived in a village recently hit by a poultry outbreak, while Romania reported finding the virus for the first time in an area other than the Danube delta.
(CIDRAP News) – The US government has awarded Chiron Corp. a $62.5 million contract to make a vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza as part of efforts to prepare for a possible human flu pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) The drug maker Roche announced yesterday it was suspending shipments of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to US pharmacies to prevent hoarding that could lead to a shortage of the drug during the winter influenza season.
The company said it was concerned that hoarding by people worried about a flu pandemic could lead to a shortage of the drug for those who will need it for treatment of ordinary seasonal flu.
(CIDRAP News) Three people from the French island of Reunion who were exposed to birds during a recent visit to Thailand are suspected of having H5N1 avian influenza, and authorities are rushing samples to Paris for testing, according to a BBC News report.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease that resembles bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), has been found in a wild moose for the first time, Colorado wildlife officials announced recently.
(CIDRAP News) The deaths of nine people in Idaho this year are being investigated as possible cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a rare, fatal brain-wasting illness.
(CIDRAP News) The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said yesterday it would set up a team to "kick start" avian influenza control efforts in Indonesia, which has been criticized for its response to the disease.
(CIDRAP News) Seasonal influenza shots are not just for high-risk groups anymore, and everyone interested in a shot should go ahead and seek one out, federal health officials said today.
(CIDRAP News) While international officials today confirmed three more human deaths from the H5N1 avian flu virus, several countries battled new outbreaks in poultry.
(CIDRAP News) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recently reconstructed the 1918 pandemic influenza virus for research purposes, has classified the virus as a "select agent," imposing special rules on groups that handle it.
(CIDRAP News) The 7-year-old son of a Thai farmer who died 2 days ago of H5N1 avian influenza also has the virus, but there is no evidence that the boy caught it from his father, according to news services.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports said the boy tested positive for the virus, but they didn't say what test was used or where it was done. The boy is hospitalized but is expected to recover.
