Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian health ministry officials today reported a fatal H5N1 avian influenza infection in a 33-year-old man from the island of Sumatra.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday released a lengthy list of safety violations it found in an investigation of a biodefense laboratory at Texas A&M University, where research on dangerous pathogens was suspended 2 months ago after problems came to light.

(CIDRAP News) – Russian officials announced today that hundreds of chickens at a farm in southern Russia died of H5N1 avian influenza, as international experts met in Bangkok to discuss how to better monitor the spread of the disease in Asia.

The poultry deaths were discovered in the town of Razdolny in Krasnodar territory on Sep 2, RIA Novosti, Russia's state news agency, reported today. The disease struck about 500 chickens.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today recognized five human H5N1 influenza cases from Vietnam dating back to late May, after publishing formal criteria for accepting positive test results for H5 flu viruses from national laboratories.

The five cases include four fatal ones, which pushes Vietnam's H5N1 toll to 100 cases with 46 deaths. The country has the second highest number of avian flu cases, after Indonesia.

(CIDRAP News) – German agriculture officials confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry farm in Bavaria Aug 25, as officials in Vietnam reported fresh outbreaks at farms in three more provinces.

(CIDRAP News) – The full results of a trial of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK's) H5N1 influenza vaccine were released recently, showing that the vaccine in combination with an adjuvant produced an acceptable immune response at a low dose and may provide cross-protection against nonmatching H5N1 strains.

(CIDRAP News) – Leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States who met at a security summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug 21 unveiled a North American pandemic influenza plan designed to share expertise, coordinate public health messages, and overcome anticipated obstacles at national borders.

(CIDRAP News) – A 28-year-old woman on the Indonesian resort island of Bali died yesterday of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the second fatal case there this month, according to Indonesian health officials.

Also today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that it has received from Indonesia a sample from the woman who had the first reported H5N1 infection on Bali, a 29-year-old who died of the disease on Aug 12.

(CIDRAP News) – Government officials in Pakistan today announced a recent outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry farm in the country's northwest, as Indonesia worked to stamp out the disease on farms on Sulawesi and Italian officials reported low-pathogenic avian flu outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials said today they have sent a sample from a recent victim of H5N1 influenza to the World Health Organization (WHO), apparently ending the country's prolonged withholding of H5N1 samples.