Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

An official in the west African country of Togo confirmed today that poultry have tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, raising the number of African nations hit by the virus to 10.

– TORONTO (CIDRAP News) – Declining public interest in the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza and its pandemic potential has sparked alarm among animal-health experts, who worry that shifting priorities will derail the funding still needed to control the disease in birds.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from the University of Iowa suggests that veterinarians who work with poultry have a significantly higher risk of infection with avian influenza, compared with nonveterinarians.

(CIDRAP News) – Agriculture officials in the Czech Republic today confirmed the country's first H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in poultry, while Vietnamese officials announced the death of another human H5N1 patient, the country's second in 2 weeks.

(CIDRAP News) – The company that markets oseltamivir (Tamiflu) in Japan has announced it will launch new studies to explore whether the antiviral drug contributes to adverse psychiatric and neurologic events in teenagers.

– TORONTO (CIDRAP News) – The continuing debate over developing countries' ability to afford pandemic-influenza vaccines has produced a disturbing complication: the possibility that Indonesia and other countries affected by H5N1 avian flu will assert legal ownership of the viral isolates on which the vaccines would be based.

(CIDRAP News) – A Vietnamese health ministry official announced 2 days ago that a 20-year-old man had died of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country's first death from the disease in about 18 months.

Trinh Quan Huan, Vietnam's vice health minister, told Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that the man fell ill on Jun 2 and died on Jun 10, two days after he was hospitalized, according to an Associated Press (AP) report today.

– TORONTO (CIDRAP News) – Ten years after H5N1 avian influenza first began to raise fears of a potential pandemic, the world has a stronger set of tools to contain that virus and similar threats, but also a fresh awareness of humanity's vulnerability to fast-spreading diseases, experts said yesterday at an international conference on flu.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's toll of people struck by H5N1 avian influenza has risen to 100, including 80 deaths, with the report that a 26-year-old man from Sumatra died of the disease on Jun 12.

(CIDRAP News) – GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) promised today to give 50 million doses of its H5N1 "prepandemic" influenza vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) for distribution to poor countries.

The vaccine will be delivered over 3 years and be enough to vaccinate 25 million people at two doses each, the United Kingdom–based drug company said in a news release.