Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today said H5N1 avian influenza virus is entrenched in some places and will continue to spread, despite improved control efforts.

As if to underscore the message, new poultry outbreaks were reported today in the Czech Republic and Bangladesh, and more wild birds were reported infected in Germany.

(CIDRAP News) – Limited supplies of prepandemic influenza vaccine may prevent more illness cases overall if they are administered to more people in lower-than-recommended doses, University of Hong Kong researchers contend in a study published this month in Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two H5N1 avian influenza cases, one in a 4-year-old Egyptian boy and the other in a 3-year-old Indonesian girl.

The boy is from Qena governorate in southern Egypt. He got sick on Jun 20 and was admitted to the hospital the next day, where he is in stable condition, according to a WHO statement.

(CIDRAP News) – Six wild birds in Germany have tested positive for the lethal strain of H5N1 avian influenza in the virus's first appearance in the country since last August, according to news services.

– TORONTO (CIDRAP News) – Scientists are uncovering naturally occurring resistance in influenza to the antiviral drugs that can prevent or treat it, potentially complicating plans by international authorities and many countries to build large drug stockpiles as a hedge against a pandemic.

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.

(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.

– 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) – 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.