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(CIDRAP News) – Italian researchers this week reported a new form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, that resembles sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human brain disease that has not previously been linked to BSE.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more human deaths caused by H5N1 avian influenza were reported today, while United Nations health officials again warned that it will take intense efforts to contain the disease.

Officials in Thailand confirmed a fatal case of H5N1 infection in a 4-year-old boy, who died Feb 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. Thailand has had nine human cases, including seven deaths.

(CIDRAP News) – Complications of smallpox vaccination, such as cardiac inflammation and spreading of vaccinia virus to others, remain relatively rare after close to 600,000 vaccinations of US military personnel over the past year.

(CIDRAP News) – A second outbreak of avian influenza was reported in Japan today, while a United Nations (UN) animal health official suggested it may not be possible to eradicate the disease in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent prediction from a panel of experts that the United States is likely to see more cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) does not clash with a previous Harvard University study that described a low risk of the disease, according to a member of the panel.

(CIDRAP News) – A leopard in a zoo near Bangkok, Thailand, died of the same H5N1 avian influenza virus that has struck eight Asian countries, according to news service reports today.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand reported two more confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza and another death today, while the United Nations warned that the virus is still spreading in Asian poultry.

In the United States, meanwhile, an outbreak of avian influenza at four live-bird markets in New Jersey was attributed to a low-pathogenic strain that poses no threat to humans.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent case of vaccinia virus transmission from a soldier to his wife and then to their breast-feeding baby suggests a need for greater precautions by smallpox vaccine recipients and breast-feeding mothers who live together, according to a case report published this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Fever, cough, and chest radiograph abnormalities were the most common features in preliminary clinical descriptions of 15 human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, provided today by US and World Health Organization (WHO) officials.

The WHO published information on 10 Vietnamese patients, eight of whom died, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on five Thai patients, all of whom died.

(CIDRAP News) – An avian influenza virus from a Vietnamese woman who was one of four family members to have the illness did not contain any human flu genes, indicating that the virus did not spread from person to person, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

"Virus genetic material from this woman, as for the other case in this cluster, is of avian origin and contains no human influenza genes," the WHO said.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday that public health must outweigh economic concerns in responding to the highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza crisis in Asia.

The warning came the same day as a report that the Indonesian government had not undertaken a mass slaughter of chickens to stop the outbreaks but was mostly leaving the job to farmers.

(CIDRAP News) – US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said yesterday they have completed their field investigation after tracing as many cows as possible from the original herd of the nation's first cow known to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of avian influenza at a farm in Delaware has been blamed on an H7 influenza virus, which does not infect humans, unlike the H5N1 subtype causing the widespread avian flu outbreaks in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking a $65 million increase in food security funds in fiscal year 2005, with more than half of the money to be used to improve capabilities for testing food for biological, chemical, and radiological contaminants.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), downplaying statements by a regional FAO official, said today it had no evidence that pigs are involved in transmitting the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – One of three Senate office buildings that were closed this week after ricin was found in an office was set to reopen today, but the source of the ricin remained a mystery.

(CIDRAP News) – As the human and animal toll from H5N1 avian influenza continued to rise, United Nations health and agricultural officials at a conference in Rome today endorsed selective vaccination of poultry to fight the spread of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – A panel of experts that reviewed the US response to the nation's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) says there are probably other cases in the United States and recommends increasing restrictions designed to keep BSE-infected materials out of human food and animal feed.

(CIDRAP News) – Test results announced today confirmed that a white powder found yesterday in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office was ricin, a deadly poison derived from castor beans, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about China's handling of its fourth recent case of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which involved a 40-year-old physician and hospital director and was revealed Jan 31.