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(CIDRAP News) – A step in the progression of avian influenza considered almost inevitable by experts in view of the widespread and continuing Asian outbreaks this year—its occurrence in pigs—has been taken, if a Chinese scientist's report is confirmed. Chen Hualan, director of China's National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, said at a conference today in Beijing that H5N1 avian flu had been found in pigs on several farms in the country this year and last.

(CIDRAP News) – H5N1 avian influenza has today been confirmed in a privately owned flock of chickens in northern Malaysia near the Thai border. The country joins three others, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia, in which the disease has resurfaced in recent weeks following the widespread outbreaks across Asia earlier in the year.

(CIDRAP News) – The cases of three people who died recently in Vietnam have now been confirmed by that country as being caused by the H5N1 strain, and two other patients are suspected of having the disease, according to news sources yesterday and today.

(CIDRAP News) – New findings suggest that far more people may be susceptible to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) than was previously supposed, according to a report in the Aug 7 Lancet.

(CIDRAP News) – Two studies from Colorado show that the 2003-04 influenza vaccine provided some protection even though it didn't match up well with the predominant flu virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

Editor's note: This story was revised Aug 13, 2004, to include additional information from the World Health Organization.

(CIDRAP News) – Three people in Vietnam died recently of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – A medical mystery is baffling infectious disease experts on Martha's Vineyard.

The island off Cape Cod, Mass., has had a string of mysterious tularemia cases. For the fifth summer in a row, people are falling ill with the rare pneumonic form of tularemia, one of the six diseases considered most likely to be spread by terrorists.

(CIDRAP News) – Twenty-nine states and tribal projects will receive $11.64 million in federal grants to develop livestock identification and tracking systems, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has announced.

(CIDRAP News) – The general trend for Salmonella in meat and poultry samples tested by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to head downward, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on Aug 5.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said last week it would no longer announce an inconclusive result in testing cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) after just one test, as it did twice in June.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Sudan has ended after 17 cases with seven deaths, signaling a remarkably successful containment effort, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

(CIDRAP News) – An analyis of decades-old serum samples from pregnant women suggests that a mother's influenza illness early in pregnancy may increase the risk of schizophrenia for her child years later.

(CIDRAP News) – South Africa has stopped all poultry exports and plans to slaughter 6,000 ostriches on two farms because of an avian influenza outbreak, but the flu is a different strain from the one that has plagued Southeast Asia this year, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – Five cases of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 infection in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been linked with beef that was recalled by a Nebraska packing plant this week, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

(CIDRAP News) – The number of West Nile virus cases reported in the United States this year jumped more than 50% with the addition of 141 cases between Jul 28 and Aug 3, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – California researchers triggered brain disease in mice by injecting a synthetic form of prion protein into their brains, providing what the researchers call "compelling" evidence that prions alone cause diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

(CIDRAP News) – A Pennsylvania firm has voluntarily recalled about 170,000 pounds of ground beef patties made partly from Canadian beef that was mislabeled and ineligible for import to the United States, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced recently.

(CIDRAP NEWS) – Two baby food jars in California were found to contain the remains of ground-up castor beans but not purified ricin, the deadly poison derived from castor beans, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last week.

The tampering incident caused no illness and apparently was confined to the Irvine, Calif., area, the FDA said in a Jul 28 news release.

(CIDRAP News) – A disease suspected to be plague has infected 1,042 people and killed 58 in a northeastern district of the Congo so far this year, according to a United Nations agency.

Findings from researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine may offer physicians further help in quickly and accurately distinguishing early inhalational anthrax from other respiratory conditions—a vitally important skill if a widespread anthrax emergency were to occur.