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(CIDRAP News) – China's agriculture ministry today said it has detected H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks at two poultry farms in Jiangsu province in the eastern part of the country.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the ministry said both sites where the H5N1 virus was found are in Haian county, in the eastern part of the province, according to a report today from Agence France-Presse (AFP).

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt's health ministry has announced that a 16-year-old girl died of an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's first human case in about 8 months, according to a report today from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Editor's note: This story was revised Dec 17 to include an item that was mistakenly left out of the list of five main recommendations on antiviral use in a pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) group that met last week in Geneva to solve problems related to global sharing of H5N1 avian influenza viruses made progress on language spelling out the commitment to sharing both the viruses and benefits, a senior US government official told CIDRAP News.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that a 19-year-old man from Cambodia has been hospitalized with H5N1 avian influenza, the country's first case in nearly a year and a half.

The man, from Kandal province, got sick on Nov 28 and first sought care from his local health center 2 day later, according to the WHO report. He is now listed as Cambodia's eighth H5N1 case, of which seven have been fatal.

(CIDRAP News) – With this year's US influenza epidemic barely getting started, there are already signs of increased viral resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the most widely used antiviral drug, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

In its flu surveillance report for Nov 30 to Dec 6, released today, the CDC said 45 of 46 influenza A/H1N1 viruses tested so far have shown resistance to oseltamivir.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced that the Ebola virus has been found in pigs for the first time, a discovery researchers made when they were investigating outbreaks of porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome (PRRS) at several swine producers in the Philippines.

(CIDRAP News) – Half-dose influenza shots generate nearly as strong an immune response in young adults as full-dose shots do, suggesting that cutting the dose in half may be a good way to cope with vaccine shortages, according to a study published this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Hong Kong today confirmed that the avian influenza virus that recently hit a large commercial chicken farm was the lethal H5N1 strain, as authorities vowed to explore potential protection gaps in the poultry vaccine and the possibility that smuggled eggs might be a source of the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – The Rand Corp. today released its first-ever midseason survey on the uptake of the current influenza vaccine, which found that public officials still have a tall task in front of them to administer this year's record vaccine supply.

The survey indicated that about 30% of US adults had received a flu shot by mid November, but more than half of those surveyed said they didn't plan to get the immunization.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Hong Kong today said they have detected an H5 avian influenza outbreak at a poultry farm in Yuen Long, marking the country's first farm-based outbreak since 2003.

York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, said in a press release today that the H5 avian flu virus struck 60 chickens, which died yesterday. He did not say if the virus at the farm was the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype.

(CIDRAP News) – This year's report card from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) on state and national public health emergency preparedness shows some signs of progress along with major gaps, sagging funding, and worry that the current economic crisis will bring deeper spending cuts.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today said that Indonesia's health ministry has notified it of two new human H5N1 avian influenza cases, a 9-year-old girl who has recovered and a 2-year-old girl who died.

The announcements come as health officials from Indonesia and other nations are meeting in Geneva this week to work on an agreement for sharing H5N1 virus samples.

(CIDRAP News) – A report from the AARP Public Policy Institute says elderly African-Americans and Hispanics lag well behind elderly whites in influenza vaccination rates, even though the federal Medicare program fully covers the shots.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today said Kansas State University (KSU) is its preferred site among six candidates for a facility to replace the federal Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday released a draft of its national vaccine strategy, which, once finalized, will serve as the federal government's game plan for guiding its policy decisions on infectious disease vaccine.

The 85-page report, dated Nov 26, is intended to update the nation's vaccine plan, which was mandated by Congress and first released in 1994, according to the report.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India yesterday reported that the H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread to poultry in new areas of Assam state, as medical officials in Vietnam acknowledged fresh outbreaks in two provinces.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday released a draft of its risk assessment for contracting highly pathogenic avian influenza from eating poultry products, shell eggs, and egg products, a tool that could be used to reduce human illness from the virus and help target messages to consumers.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who surveyed thousands of Minnesota college students over four years found that those who got flu shots had a 30% lower rate of flu-like illness during flu seasons than those who skipped the shots, according to a report published this week.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report yesterday detailing the first year of accomplishments in implementing its Food Protection Plan, a road map the agency presented in November 2007 in response to a spate of contamination incidents involving domestic and imported food.