Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – European officials yesterday reported more evidence that one of the three types of seasonal influenza viruses is showing resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and said this represents the first clear sign that the resistant variant can spread.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in Saudi Arabia and Tibet reported new H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks yesterday, as India struggled to keep the virus out of Calcutta and Bangladesh officials said outbreaks have spread to yet another district.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India reported yesterday that H5N1 avian influenza had spread to 13 of 19 districts in West Bengal state, as authorities in neighboring Bangladesh said poultry outbreaks have occurred in close to half of the country's districts.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian authorities have reported four new human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, two of them fatal, raising the country's death toll from the virus to 100.

A 23-year-old woman from East Jakarta died of avian flu yesterday, and a 9-year-old boy from Jakarta's outskirts succumbed to the disease today, according to a Reuters report.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent study in Cambodia suggests that some human cases of infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus escape detection because symptoms are mild or absent, according to a report from an international avian flu conference this week in Bangkok.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that two more people have died of H5N1 avian influenza, a 34-year-old man from Vietnam and a 30-year-old man from Indonesia. Both cases were reported previously.

(CIDRAP News) – Outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in 15 countries since December 2007 are a potent reminder that the virus is still a global threat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today, as officials in Thailand announced they found the disease in poultry again after a 6-month lapse.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Vietnam said today that a 32-year-old man has died of H5N1 avian influenza, signaling the country's first reported case and death of the new year.

Editor's note: This story was revised on Jan 23 to correct errors regarding the numbers of clinical specimens and H5N1 viruses submitted by Indonesia to the World Health Organization in 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – An animal health official in India said today that outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in the country's West Bengal state have spread to seven districts, as authorities in Turkey announced that the virus struck a village in a Black Sea coastal province.