Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

May 17, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – Though the steady stream of new H7N9 cases has tapered, the pace of publications on the new virus is still brisk, with new reports today on Taiwan's case, a link between markets and human cases, and risk assessment and planning for possible scenarios in Europe.

(CIDRAP News) – The first patient in China's Hunan province with confirmed H7N9 influenza has died, lifting the outbreak's fatality count to 36, according to official and media reports today.

May 13, 2013

If the H7N9 influenza virus now circulating in China evolves into a pandemic strain, the world is likely to have great difficulty providing adequate supplies of an effective vaccine in time to blunt its impact, according to a viewpoint article by three experts in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

(CIDRAP News) – The steep decline in H7N9 cases in China has influenza experts wondering if poultry market closures have slowed the disease or if the new virus is showing a summerlike decline that other avian flu viruses show, according to the latest assessments today.

(CIDRAP News) – Testing of more than 20,000 Chinese who had influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) in March and April turned up little evidence of mild cases of H7N9 influenza, researchers reported, as Chinese authorities revealed that another H7N9 patient has died.

(CIDRAP News) – Another patient in China has died from an H7N9 influenza infection, raising the number of fatal illnesses to 32, though no new cases were reported today, holding the overall case total to 131.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported the death today in an update based on information from China's National Health and Family Planning Commission.

(CIDRAP News) – A 79-year-old woman from China's Jiangxi province has been hospitalized with H7N9 avian flu, moving the outbreak total to 131 cases, including 31 deaths.

Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP), which cites China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in a statement today that the woman is in stable condition and that none of her 11 close contacts has shown symptoms so far.