Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – An Indonesian health official, responding to recent comments by the US health secretary, today denied that Indonesia wants financial compensation if it resumes sharing its H5N1 avian influenza virus samples.

(CIDRAP News) – A US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official today shared wrap-up perspectives on HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's recent trip to Southeast Asia, which included discussions on virus-sharing and restrictions on the US Navy laboratory in Indonesia, updates on avian influenza collaborations, and talks on import safety.

(CIDRAP News) – To stem quickly spreading H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks that have hit South Korea over the past few weeks, agriculture ministry officials said today as many as 5.32 million birds would be culled, the largest such operation in the country's history of battling the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed that a 2-year-old Egyptian boy has H5N1 avian influenza, which raised the country's case count to 50.

(CIDRAP News) – US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, in Vietnam today on the second leg of a 10-daytour of Southeast Asia, revealed new details on his blog today about his talks with Indonesian officials on two controversial issues: the country's refusal to freely share H5N1 virus samples and the status of the US Navy's medical laboratory unit, NAMRU-2.

(CIDRAP News) –Agriculture officials in South Korea said today they had received new reports of suspicious bird deaths at seven different sites, as the number of confirmed H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks grew by three, to 15.

The suspected outbreaks are in North and South Jeolla provinces in the southwestern part of South Korea, not far from the sites of other recent outbreaks, according to a report from Reuters today.

(CIDRAP News) – Japan's health ministry today said it was on the verge of approving a plan to administer prepandemic vaccine to healthcare workers, which would make it the world's first country to tap its national stockpile for this purpose.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in South Korea yesterday said an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak was confirmed at a fourth farm, amid reports of several more suspected outbreaks, a day after Russia's agriculture ministry said the virus had struck birds in the far eastern part of the country.

(CIDRAP News) – Egypt's health ministry announced today that a 30-year-old woman has died of an H5N1 avian influenza infection, the country's second fatality from the disease in less than a week.

(CIDRAP News) – A 52-year-old Chinese man probably caught H5N1 avian influenza from his dying son while caring for him in a hospital last December, but others who had close contact with both patients were not infected, Chinese researchers reported this week in The Lancet.