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(CIDRAP News) – A 23-year-old Indonesian man who kept birds has died from avian influenza, officials there said today, marking the seventh death they attribute to the H5N1 virus.

Slamet Wibowo died on Thursday, according to a story by Agence France-Presse (AFP) today. He was referred to Sulianti Saroso hospital for infectious diseases in Jakarta from a private hospital in Cibinong, according to Ilham Patu, a hospital spokesman.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed new animal feed rules to reduce the risk of spreading bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), but they don't go as far as some earlier FDA proposals.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States may need to quarantine regions of the country if localized outbreaks of a pandemic flu occur, US President George Bush said today during a press conference in Washington, DC.

Bush suggested expanding presidential power over state-run National Guard operations to implement such quarantines in the event of a pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers against eating certain prepackaged Dole salad products after they were linked to 11 cases of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection in Minnesota.

(CIDRAP News) – Several air sensors detected traces of the tularemia pathogen on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC, Sep 24 and 25, but no cases of illness have been reported among people who were in the area at the time, according to health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Senate voted yesterday to provide $4 billion for antiviral drugs and other measures to prepare for a feared influenza pandemic, but whether the measure would clear Congress was uncertain.

(CIDRAP News) – Forty states have reported a total of 1,804 cases of West Nile virus (WNV) infection, including 52 deaths, so far this year, numbers about even with last year's pace, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

At this time last year, 1,784 WNV cases, including 56 deaths, had been reported, the CDC reported in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations today signaled a new level of concern about avian influenza and the risk of a flu pandemic by naming a special coordinator of all UN responses to the situation.

Dr. David Nabarro, a British public health expert with the World Health Organization (WHO), was named to the new job of "UN system coordinator for avian and human influenza."

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government and MedImmune Inc. announced today they will collaborate to develop vaccines for potential pandemic strains of influenza, using the technology that was used to create the company's nasal-spray flu vaccine, FluMist.

(CIDRAP News) – Hospital residents did poorly on a test of their ability to recognize and manage diseases potentially related to bioterrorism, but they fared much better after taking an online training program, according to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – A respiratory illness that recently emerged in racing greyhounds is caused by an influenza virus that jumped from horses to dogs, disease experts reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials have blamed two more deaths on H5N1 avian influenza, bringing the country's reported avian flu toll to six, although the cases have not yet been confirmed by an international reference laboratory.

A 27-year-old woman who died today and a 5-year-old girl who died last week had the virus, according to officials quoted by the Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who reviewed 64 studies report that influenza vaccination is only modestly beneficial for elderly people overall, with nursing home residents benefiting more than people living on their own.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed a new human case of H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia, but said there is no evidence that the virus is easily spreading from person to person there.

The agency said the Indonesian government confirmed a case in an 8-year-old boy who is being treated in a hospital. A WHO reference laboratory in Hong Kong did the confirmatory testing.

(CIDRAP News) – The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week the agency will soon align its rules on animal feed more closely with those in Canada and Europe, signaling a likelihood of new restrictions to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The death of a 5-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl from suspected avian influenza fanned worries in Indonesia today as the government promised to destroy infected poultry flocks, according to news agencies.

(CIDRAP News) – Three workers from Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo have been hospitalized with suspected H5N1 avian influenza, increasing the number of suspected human cases in Indonesia to as many as seven, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia was on high alert over H5N1 avian influenza today, with at least two children hospitalized with suspected cases and Jakarta's zoo closed because of infected birds.

(CIDRAP News) – US officials this week promoted international efforts to prepare for a potential influenza pandemic, announcing an international flu surveillance partnership and promising aid to Vietnam for avian and human flu surveillance.

(CIDRAP News) – Tests have confirmed that an Indonesian woman who died Sep 10 had H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

The woman's case had been listed as probable on the basis of an initial test. Further testing at a WHO reference laboratory in Hong Kong confirmed the case, the WHO said. The woman fell ill Aug 31 and was hospitalized in Jakarta Sep 3, the agency said.