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(CIDRAP News) – The manufacturer of peanut butter that has been implicated in a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections announced a recall yesterday of all of its product made since Jul 1, 2008.

(CIDRAP News) – A 21-month-old Egyptian girl has been hospitalized with an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's health ministry said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Minnesota officials today reported a genetic match between Salmonella found in an open container of King Nut peanut butter and a multistate outbreak that has sickened more than 400 people, confirming a link they first reported as likely on Jan 9.

(CIDRAP News) – In a progress report on federal pandemic influenza planning efforts, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says several companies working under federal contracts are on track to develop cell culture–based pandemic flu vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) – A Salmonella outbreak that was first publicized this week has expanded to 388 cases in 42 states, but the cause remains unknown, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

News reports yesterday put the outbreak, involving Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium, at 336 cases in 34 states.

Editor's note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Jan 8 that, contrary to this story, it had not activated its emergency network to investigate the Salmonella outbreak and that chicken was not the leading suspected food source. Those items were based on a Jan 7 USA Today online report that the CDC said was later withdrawn.

(CIDRAP News) – Hong Kong health officials reported today that the H9N2 avian influenza virus that recently infected a 2-month-old girl from mainland China has not acquired any genes from human-adapted flu viruses, implying that it is unlikely to pose a major danger to humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health officials in two countries today announced new human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, involving a 19-year-old Chinese woman who died of her infection and an 8-year-old Vietnamese girl who is recovering.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that laboratory officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have confirmed a third case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

Laboratory analysis was performed at the DRC's national lab in Kinshasa, a lab in Franceville, Gabon, and at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, according to a Jan 2 statement from the WHO.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India's West Bengal state recently reported new H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in two more districts, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – A newly published analysis of oseltamivir-resistant influenza viruses collected last winter in Norway hints that they may increase an infected person's risk of pneumonia and sinus infections, but the small number of patients in the study means the finding is no more than a hint at this point.

Dec 30. 2008 (CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Hong Kong today said a 2-month-old girl who lives in mainland China has been hospitalized at a Hong Kong hospital for an H9N2 avian influenza infection, which typically causes mild illness but is considered one of the viruses that could evolve into a pandemic strain.

Editor's note: This story was revised Dec 30 to make clear that as of Dec 29, only two cases in the outbreak had been confirmed as Ebola. During the DRC's 2007 outbreak the government confirmed 17 cases, down from 25 it reported earlier, and initial reports during that outbreak mentioned as many as 395 suspected Ebola cases.  Some of the suspected patients had other diseases, including shigellosis.

(CIDRAP News) – While the US influenza season has started slowly, cases are surging in England, raising concern that the country could have its toughest season since 1999-2000.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Bangladesh said today that they have detected another H5N1 avian influenza outbreak on a farm, the country's fifth one since the virus reemerged in poultry flocks in October.

(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 influenza vaccine made by Baxter International could become the first cell culture–based H5N1 influenza vaccine to be approved for marketing, following its endorsement by a committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) last week.

Recommendations of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) are usually followed by the EMEA within a few months.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a new version of BioThrax—the nation's only licensed anthrax vaccine—that requires fewer doses and changes the injection route.

(CIDRAP News) – Increased resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the leading influenza drug, has prompted federal health officials to change their advice about flu treatment, saying clinicians for now should consider using zanamivir (Relenza) or a combination of two drugs for patients suspected of having influenza A.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities from Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Egypt reported that the H5N1 avian influenza virus has struck poultry again, according to new reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Cost issues and the risk of viral resistance drew considerable attention today in an online presentation by federal health officials on their revised guidance regarding use of antiviral drugs in an influenza pandemic.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two guidance documents this week, one on antiviral use in general and one on employer stockpiling of antivirals.