Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – In at least 25% of human infections with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, just how the person was exposed to the virus remains a mystery, according to a report by an expert panel set up by the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – Dr. Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), believes the H5N1 avian influenza virus still has the potential to cause a human flu pandemic, the OIE said today in an effort to clarify news reports of comments Vallat made last week.

(CIDRAP News) – A state agriculture minister in India today confirmed that a disease outbreak involving 35,000 recent poultry deaths in West Bengal state was caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus.

Anisur Rahaman, West Bengal's minister for animal resources, told Reuters, "The outbreak is of the deadly H5N1 strain and it has been confirmed to us in a central government notification today."

(CIDRAP News) – An official from Indonesia's health ministry said today that a 32-year-old woman who lived near Jakarta died of H5N1 avian influenza, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) – A research report published last week says that the factors governing whether H5N1 avian influenza viruses can invade human cells are more complex than previously thought and have to do with the particular shape of the cell-surface sugar molecules to which viruses attach.

(CIDRAP News) – Disease experts and preparedness advocates reacted negatively today to comments by the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) suggesting that the risk of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian flu virus is minimal.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry announced that a 16-year-old girl from West Java province is hospitalized with H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today. This development follows new media revelations about details relating to recently confirmed H5N1 patients in China and Pakistan.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in the United Kingdom today announced that samples from three mute swans found dead at a swan sanctuary in Dorset County on England's southwest coast tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) today shared results of initial genetic sequencing tests on H5N1 avian influenza samples from a man who died of the disease in Pakistan that suggest the strain doesn't have the capacity for widespread transmission.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Israel today notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of an H5 avian influenza outbreak at a site near Haifa, and media outlets are reporting that final tests have confirmed the virus is the lethal H5N1subtype.