Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Poland, Russia, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia reported new outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza in birds today, according to news reports.

Poland has new outbreaks at two sites well separated from the five outbreaks reported recently in two areas northwest of Warsaw, according to a Reuters report.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry today announced that a 28-year-old woman who lived near Jakarta died yesterday of H5N1 avian influenza.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese officials said today that analysis of a virus sample from a 24-year-old man who died of H5N1 avian influenza shows no signs of a dangerous mutation, as some news reports said the man and his father, who is hospitalized with an H5N1 infection, both had eaten undercooked chicken.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists say they have found three distinct variants of H5N1 avian influenza virus in wild birds in Germany, two of which might have been brought in by wild birds migrating from Russia.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese officials said today that the father of a Chinese man who recently died of H5N1 avian influenza has been hospitalized with an H5N1 infection, raising the possibility of a new family cluster and sparking fears of human-to-human transmission.

(CIDRAP News) – International donors at this week's New Delhi conference on avian and pandemic influenza pledged about $406 million, including $195 million from the United States, to fight H5N1 avian flu, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Chinese health officials reported today that a 24-year-old man from the eastern part of the country died of H5N1 avian influenza.

The man, from Jiangsu province, died yesterday, the provincial health department told Xinhua News, China's state news agency. If the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the man's H5N1 illness he will become China's 26th case-patient and its 17th fatality.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary officials in Poland today said H5N1 avian influenza has struck two turkey farms, the country's first reported outbreak in domestic birds, amid reports that meat contaminated with the virus was sold to consumers.

(CIDRAP News) – Many countries have improved their responses to H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in poultry in the past year, but the disease remains entrenched in six countries, according to a new report from the United Nations and the World Bank.

(CIDRAP News) – The initial epidemiologic report, released today, on the United Kingdom's recent outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in Suffolk said the source of the virus is unknown but could have been wild birds.