(CIDRAP News) Scientists have found evidence that North American avian influenza viruses of the H7 subtype are becoming more like human flu viruses in their ability to attach to host cells, which suggests they may be improving their capacity to infect humans.
(CIDRAP News) Indonesia's health minister asserted yesterday that 112 other nations at a meeting in Geneva last week expressed support for her country's position on avian influenza virus sharing, according to an Indonesian newspaper.
(CIDRAP News) Two more wild swans infected with H5N1 avian influenza were found in Japan this week, and authorities in South Korea said H5N1 viruses found in chickens there closely matched an earlier isolate from swans in Japan.
(CIDRAP News) Bangladesh has become the 15th country to have a human case of H5N1 avian influenza, this one in a 16-month-old boy who became ill in January but recovered, according to news services.
The boy's case was confirmed only yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Saluddin Khan, a government official. The child is from Dhaka, the capital, the story said.
(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's recent announcement that it would immediately begin sharing H5N1 avian influenza genetic sequences with a new public database is being hailed by experts as a promising development, though there is a concern that having actual virus isolates would be better.
Indonesia's decision, announced by Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, was detailed in a May 15 report from the Associated Press (AP).
(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.
