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(CIDRAP News) – Representatives from 24 countries are meeting in Singapore this week to propose solutions to virus-sharing problems that threaten to derail global monitoring of the H5N1 avian influenza virus and stall the development of new vaccines and treatments.

(CIDRAP News) – A Mayo Clinic study indicates that many hospitalized influenza patients shed flu virus for at least 7 days after they fall ill, suggesting that the current recommendation to use infection control precautions for 5 days may be inadequate.

(CIDRAP News) – A hospital official in Vietnam today said a 22-year-old woman who was 7 months pregnant died of H5N1 avian influenza 3 days ago, pushing the country's death toll from the disease this year to three.

(CIDRAP News) – Acambis, a British biotechnology company, recently announced the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial of an influenza vaccine designed to provide a stable shield against seasonal and pandemic flu strains and eliminate the need to overhaul the flu vaccine each year.

(CIDRAP News) – The Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), a group that includes 600 companies that distribute half of the United States' flu vaccine supply, released a report yesterday to help shed light on the some of the supply chain obstacles have delayed vaccine shipments to doctors' offices.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of West Nile virus (WNV) cases reported so far this season has dramatically outpaced the number reported at about this time last summer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – A recently published survey of Europeans and Asians showed that, when faced with an influenza pandemic, most would avoid mass transit and limit shopping to essentials, and many would avoid other public places, including restaurants, theaters, and the workplace.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India announced today that samples from chickens at a poultry farm in the remote northeastern Manipur state were positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus, signaling the country's first outbreak in more than a year.

(CIDRAP News) – World health experts have been working under a general assumption that a feared reassortment between human and avian influenza viruses—a scenario that could spark a pandemic—might only occur during a short winter interval, but researchers who recently examined virus circulation patterns warn that time frames for coinfection are wider and sometimes unpredictable.

(CIDRAP News) – Eighteen medical groups, led by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), released a report at a recent conference in Washington, DC, that contains 53 recommendations for improving the nation's response to mass casualty events such as terrorist attacks, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official in Cairo said yesterday that test results in a 25-year-old Egyptian woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

The country's state news agency, MENA, said the woman is from the Nile Delta's Damietta province in northern Egypt, according to a Reuters report yesterday. She came down with a high fever 3 days ago and is in good condition after receiving oseltamivir, MENA reported.

(CIDRAP News) – The company that recalled its chili sauce last week after four people got sick with suspected botulism poisoning dramatically expanded the recall over the weekend to include products that contain meat, including one dog food brand.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday urged all countries to strengthen their food safety systems, a day after President Bush issued an executive order establishing a group to examine the safety of imported food and other goods.

(CIDRAP News) – Four people from Texas and Indiana were recently hospitalized with suspected botulism poisoning after they consumed hot dog chili sauce that may have been contaminated, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – In an update on the nation's pandemic preparedness efforts, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday said it had stockpiled enough H5N1 avian influenza vaccine to protect about 6 million people and that federal and state supplies contain enough antiviral medication to treat more than 48 million.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday announced it was providing states, US territories, and four metropolitan areas with $896.7 million in public health preparedness funding, with $175 million of the total earmarked for pandemic planning.

Preparedness grantsThe bulk of the money is allocated toward Public Health Emergency Cooperative Agreements, which public health departments use to build capacity.

(CIDRAP News) – The White House Homeland Security Council today released a 1-year update on the federal government's pandemic influenza preparedness strategy, reporting that it has met 86% of the objectives it set for itself a year ago.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed that turkeys at a Virginia farm were exposed to the low-pathogenic North American strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Whenever my commitment to pandemic preparedness starts to flag, I read something wrongheaded by an opponent of preparedness. Here's my take on an example from a major medical journal.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have hoped that disabling the body's destructive immune-system overreaction to the H5N1 avian influenza virus, known as "cytokine storm," could lead to new lifesaving treatments, but according to a new study, trials testing the strategy didn't protect mice infected with the disease.