Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – A year after the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the development of an international stockpile of vaccines against H5N1 influenza, the stockpile has not yet materialized, the WHO said in a report released today.

(CIDRAP News) – South Korea's agriculture ministry yesterday confirmed a second outbreak of the H5N1 virus in the capital city of Seoul, which prompted the culling of all poultry within the city.

Kim Yoon-kyo, a city government official, said today that 15,000 chickens, ducks, pheasants, and turkeys that are raised at farms, restaurants, schools, and homes were destroyed, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities in India's West Bengal state today confirmed a new H5N1 virus outbreak in the Darjeeling district, as agriculture officials in South Korea reported that the virus had struck birds in the eastern part of the country, pushing the number of recent outbreaks to 35.

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials today kicked off a 4-day meeting in Geneva to begin revising pandemic preparedness guidance for countries, amid warnings that the risk of an influenza pandemic has not waned since the last update.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in South Korea said H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks have been reported in six of the country's nine provinces, while authorities in Japan announced today that wild swans at a two more sites have tested positive for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 influenza vaccine based on a weakened adenovirus was tested successfully in mice and may offer advantages as a tool for combating a human flu pandemic, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Purdue University.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has accepted the first batch of H5N1 avian influenza vaccine based on the H5N1 variant known as clade 2.2, which has spread most widely across Asia, Europe, and Africa.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia today reported that a 3-year-old boy died last week of an H5N1 influenza infection, as Japan confirmed that the virus found recently in four wild swans was H5N1, according to news agencies.

Lili Sulistyowati of the Indonesian health ministry said the 3-year-old was from Manyaran village in Central Java and died April 23 after a respiratory illness, according to a Reuters report today.

(CIDRAP News) – Toronto's city council yesterday approved a $1.5 million plan to treat nearly half of the municipal employee workforce with antiviral medication in the event of a pandemic scenario, making it the first major Canadian city to stockpile the drugs.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Japan were awaiting final tests on four wild swans that recently tested positive for an H5 strain of avian influenza, as authorities in Vietnam and India's Tripura state moved to quash new outbreaks caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.