Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Science and preparedness discussions in the wake of China's H7N9 avian flu outbreak took the stage at two medical meetings today, with experts uneasy about how the virus has behaved so far and questioning its source and if the threat to humans can be contained.

May 21, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – China's H7N9 influenza outbreak was one of the high-profile disease topics in the opening address today for the annual World Health Assembly (WHA), as two global health groups issued new assessments of the risk to humans and the poultry trade.

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

(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.

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) – 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.