Vietnam has reported a new H5N6 avian flu outbreak, and Taiwan officials have confirmed seven separate H5N2 events, according to reports posted today by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
An avian flu strain that hasn't been seen in the US before has struck a farm in Indiana.
Two more H7N9 avian flu illnesses have been detected in China, both affecting patients from Guangdong province in southern China, according to a statement today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP), which cited mainland authorities.
Officials have confirmed a severe case of H5N1 avian flu in a man in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south central China, according to a statement from the Sichuan Health and Family Planning Commission translated and posted today by Avian Flu Diary (AFD), an infectious disease news blog.
Taiwan officials today reported a new H7N9 avian flu case on the mainland, while Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) provided details on eight recent cases in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
In related developments, French officials posted an update on the country's outbreaks, which remain at 67, with testing still under way.
According to the first-ever global burden estimates for melioidosis, the disease is sharply underreported in 45 endemic countries, it's probably endemic in 34 more, and conditions are suitable for the disease in parts of the United States and Japan.
Four of the 8 H5N6 cases ever reported have been in the past 2 weeks, and H7N9 has topped 700 cases.
Kansas researchers have developed a vaccine that they say can protect poultry against multiple H5 avian flu strains, but chicken producers remain reluctant to use such vaccines because of possible foreign bans on US poultry products, according to reports yesterday.
Some topics: weighing risks and benefits, ethical issues, and global involvement.
