Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – To confront the spreading swine influenza H1N1 virus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) today raised the agency's pandemic alert level to phase 5, one notch below a full-fledged influenza pandemic, signaling that it's time for all countries to prepare.

The move comes just 2 days after the WHO raised the alert from phase 3, where it had been for several years, to phase 4.

Vietnamese woman dies of H5N1 infectionVietnam's health ministry announced today that a 23-year-old woman from the northern part of the country died on Apr 22 from an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Officials said they haven't determined the source of her infection. If the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms her illness and death, it will bring the country's official H5N1 toll to 111 cases and 56 deaths.

Apr 23, 2009

Apr 22, 2009

Apr 21, 2009

(CIDRAP News) - Egypt's state media reported two new H5N1 avian influenza infections within 2 days of each other, in a 25-year-old woman and an 18-month girl.

The state-run paper Al Ahram, quoting the country's health ministry, reported on Apr 17 that the woman is from Qalubia governorate and was hospitalized in critical condition, according to report from Agence France-Presse.

Apr 20, 2009

Apr 17, 2009

Apr 16, 2009

Apr 15, 2009