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(CIDRAP News) – For the second time in 4 days, Indonesia's health ministry today announced a fatal human case of H5N1 avian influenza, this one in a 17-year-old girl from a town just west of Jakarta who died Aug 14.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in a statement confirming the case, reported the girl got sick on Aug 9, was hospitalized Aug 13, and died a day later. She was from Tangerang, 12 miles west of Jakarta, in Banten province.

(CIDRAP News) – The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently announced another major order of prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccine from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with plans to launch a North American clinical trial of the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Three years ago President Bush directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to consolidate biosurveillance data to improve the nation's ability to detect bioterrorism and other infectious disease threats, but federal auditors warned this week that leadership problems have seriously hampered the program.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnam's agriculture ministry today announced the detection of a poultry outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in a province bordering China, a day after French officials reported that four wild ducks in Moselle had the virus.

Editor's note: This story was revised Aug 16 to include a clarification from the World Health Organization about the identity of the index case-patient.

(CIDRAP News) – Only one additional case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed in Uganda since a single case and some suspected cases were reported there on Aug 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned consumers to avoid eating raw oysters harvested from the southern tip of Hood Canal in Washington state after receiving at least six reports of patients who contracted vibriosis.

(CIDRAP News) – A graduate student working in a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was treated for possible anthrax exposure following a laboratory accident Aug 11—two days after a US House committee announced plans to hold hearings on biodefense lab safety.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry today announced that a 29-year-old woman from Bali died yesterday of H5N1 avian influenza, signaling the first human case on the popular tourist island, and that her 5-year-old daughter had died earlier of a similar illness.

(CIDRAP News) – An analysis of historical records in 43 US cities indicates that the early use of nonpharmaceutical measures, such as isolating the sick and banning public gatherings, saved lives in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19.

(CIDRAP News) – Global health officials have long feared genetic changes that would make the H5N1 avian influenza virus more easily transmissible among humans, but a new report from researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) predicts some of the crucial mutations, which could open the door to preemptive vaccines and treatments.

I've always been amazed at how some people use numbers to make their point. For example, I could say that, between the two of us, Barry Bonds and I average 378 career major league home runs. Of course, that doesn't tell you that I account for zero of those dingers, and we all know that such an analysis isn't statistically appropriate. But far too often such calculations seem to become fact if the number is repeated enough.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian health officials said this week they will continue withholding samples of the H5N1 avian influenza virus at least until a new virus-sharing mechanism is worked out at an international meeting in November.

The statements came in response to criticism earlier this week from a World Health Organization (WHO) official, who said Indonesia was endangering global health by withholding the viruses.

(CIDRAP News) – Dengue fever is gaining a firmer foothold in southern Texas, putting residents at risk for the most dangerous form of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnamese officials said yesterday that the death of a 15-year-old boy last week was caused by H5N1 avian influenza, according to news services.

The teenager died Aug 3 while being transferred from a hospital in his home province of Thanh Hoa to Hanoi, 95 miles to the north, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization official said yesterday that Indonesia is endangering the world's health by continuing to withhold H5N1 influenza virus samples collected from human patients.

(CIDRAP News) – A preliminary British government report says the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak discovered last week near London was very probably caused by a leak from a local laboratory.

(CIDRAP News) – Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a cattle disease that devastated the British beef industry in 2001, has resurfaced in England, possibly because of a laboratory leak.

(CIDRAP News) – A Ugandan miner who died in mid-July had Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and another worker at the same mine has a suspected case, the World Health Organization announced today.

The miner, aged 29, became ill on Jul 4, was hospitalized 3 days later, and died Jul 14, the WHO said. He had cared for a 21-year-old coworker who had fallen ill with similar symptoms on Jun 27 and was hospitalized but later recovered.

(CIDRAP News) – US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach announced this week the postponement of a plan to close about half of the FDA's field laboratories until the agency hears the recommendations of President Bush's import safety working group.

(CIDRAP News) – Since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned of a link between four botulism cases and contaminated chili sauce 2 weeks ago, state health departments have confirmed one additional botulism case and reported at least three more suspected cases.