Routine disease surveillance reports for November from two of China's provinces reveal five more H7N9 avian flu cases, according to official reports translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
About 40% of people in the United States had received a flu vaccine by early November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today, adding that it estimated the intervention prevented an estimated 5 million flu illnesses, 71,000 flu hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths.
Elsewhere, Taiwan officials said tests have now confirmed H5N8 in two recent outbreaks in backyard birds.
European countries already reporting H5N8 note several more outbreaks, many involving wild birds.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today provided details on two cases of H5N6 in China that were first reported last month by local authorities.
In addition, France and the UK take steps to lower risk from the highly pathogenic avian flu strain.
High-path avian flu continues to appear on farms and in wild birds in Europe, while Hong Kong reports H5N6 in samples from a nature preserve.
Also, a study from China says H5N6 has replaced H5N1 as the dominant strain in southern poultry.
Tunisia has H5 avian flu for the first time, and Finland and Austria report new H5N8 outbreaks.
Pigs and llamas appear prone to infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to researchers who experimentally infected four animal species and reported their findings yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
