Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – World health experts have been working under a general assumption that a feared reassortment between human and avian influenza viruses—a scenario that could spark a pandemic—might only occur during a short winter interval, but researchers who recently examined virus circulation patterns warn that time frames for coinfection are wider and sometimes unpredictable.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in India announced today that samples from chickens at a poultry farm in the remote northeastern Manipur state were positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus, signaling the country's first outbreak in more than a year.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official in Cairo said yesterday that test results in a 25-year-old Egyptian woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

The country's state news agency, MENA, said the woman is from the Nile Delta's Damietta province in northern Egypt, according to a Reuters report yesterday. She came down with a high fever 3 days ago and is in good condition after receiving oseltamivir, MENA reported.

(CIDRAP News) – In an update on the nation's pandemic preparedness efforts, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday said it had stockpiled enough H5N1 avian influenza vaccine to protect about 6 million people and that federal and state supplies contain enough antiviral medication to treat more than 48 million.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed that turkeys at a Virginia farm were exposed to the low-pathogenic North American strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

(CIDRAP News) – The White House Homeland Security Council today released a 1-year update on the federal government's pandemic influenza preparedness strategy, reporting that it has met 86% of the objectives it set for itself a year ago.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have hoped that disabling the body's destructive immune-system overreaction to the H5N1 avian influenza virus, known as "cytokine storm," could lead to new lifesaving treatments, but according to a new study, trials testing the strategy didn't protect mice infected with the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed yesterday that turkeys from a Virginia farm carried antibodies indicating possible past exposure to a mild form of H5N1 avian influenza virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry announced today that a 6-year-old boy from Banten province died of H5N1 avian influenza yesterday, according to several media reports.

Runizar Ruesin, an official with the health ministry's avian flu information center, said the boy died in a Jakarta hospital, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. He fell ill on Jul 1 and was hospitalized 4 days later, Ruesin said.

(CIDRAP News) – A Virginia agriculture official announced today that a turkey flock in Shenandoah County has tested positive for antibodies to a nonlethal H5 avian influenza virus, indicating possible past exposure.