Data from seven European countries suggests that last season's influenza vaccine yielded about 42% to 50% protection, depending on the flu type, according to a recent report in Eurosurveillance.
The H7N9 cases reported in the past 3 days are from four of China's provinces.
The slowdown continues, with only two new cases in Guangdong province, one of China's hotspots.
A genetic analysis hints that reassortants could be one factor fueling recent cases.
Health officials in China's Jiangxi province today reported their third recent human case of H10N8 avian flu, which proved fatal, according to a provincial statement in Chinese translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
The patient, a 75-year-old man from the capital city of Nanchang, got sick on Feb 4 and was hospitalized with severe pneumonia. He died on Feb 8.
A 7-year-old Cambodian boy and his 3-year-old sister died from H5N1 avian flu late last week, a health official said today, but only the boy was tested, according to Xinhua, China's state news agency.
The Malaysia case is the first one outside China, and 8 other H7N9 cases were confirmed.
The rate of new infections slowed today, as the WHO confirmed seven previously reported cases.
Two provinces in Vietnam have reported outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu in poultry, an article from Xinhua, China's news agency, reported today. One of the outbreaks follows one in the same province late last month, raising alarm over the infection's spread to other areas and to humans.
The new infections include the first 2 cases of the second wave from Anhui province.
