Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – In quickly evolving H7N9 influenza developments, the virus has spread to a new part of China—as two illnesses were reported today in Henan province—and Beijing officials have reported the outbreak's first asymptomatic case.

(CIDRAP News) – China today reported the first H7N9 influenza infection in a contact of an earlier confirmed case, along with four other new cases, bumping the country's illness total from the new virus to 49.

(CIDRAP News) – Beijing health authorities today confirmed an H7N9 infection in a 7-year-old girl who lives in the city, the first case to be detected outside of eastern China, according to Chinese media sources.

(CIDRAP News) – New reports of H7N9 avian flu infections in China today boosted the total to 43, with 5 more cases: 2 from Shanghai and 3 from neighboring Zhejiang province.

One more death was reported, that of a 74-year-old man from Shanghai whose illness was first announced during the first week of April. The new fatal case pushed China's number of deaths from the novel virus to 11.

(CIDRAP News) – A new analysis of H7N9 genetic sequences from the first Chinese patients infected with the virus and from poultry markets found more signals that the virus can attach and replicate efficiently in the airways of humans and other mammals, raising concerns about the virus's pandemic potential.

(CIDRAP News) – New reports of H7N9 avian influenza cases from eastern China continued at a steady pace today, with five more infections and one death confirmed by officials in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.

(CIDRAP News) – US health officials voiced concern about the emerging H7N9 influenza virus in China today as a report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) described the severe illnesses that killed three of the first patients identified.

Apr 10, 2013

(CIDRAP News) – Five more H7N9 influenza infections have been confirmed in eastern China, all in older adults, while suspicions grow that wild birds may be the source and that the disease might be spreading to people through poultry environments.