Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials announced today that a 15-year-old girl from Central Java died of H5N1 avian influenza this week, as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that it received two human H5N1 samples from China, ending a nearly year-long delay in sharing promised samples.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Indonesia reported today that a 45-year-old man from Central Java province died of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the country's second fatal case in less than 2 weeks.

Joko Suyono of the Indonesian health ministry's avian flu center said the man was hospitalized May 17 and died 2 days ago, Reuters reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister said yesterday that Baxter Healthcare Corp would launch a clinical trial of an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine in Indonesia in July, according to news reports, but a Baxter official said the company has not announced any clinical trials.

(CIDRAP News) – A 19-year-old Chinese soldier is being treated for H5N1 avian influenza, while a woman who was diagnosed with the disease in February has left the hospital after months of treatment, according to reports from China.

(CIDRAP News) - Four people in Wales and northwest England have tested positive for the low-pathogenic H7N2 avian influenza subtype found last week in chickens at a small farm in Wales, and local public health authorities suspect some degree of human-to-human transmission of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Farmers, airlines, and salmon fishermen stood to benefit when Congress passed a modestly trimmed emergency spending bill yesterday, but pandemic influenza preparedness lost out.

(CIDRAP News) – Some of the H5N1 avian flu virus samples from human cases that China has promised to send to a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory have arrived in the United States, apparently ending an almost year-long lapse in sample sharing.

(CIDRAP News) – Veterinary officials in Wales confirmed a low pathogenic H7N2 avian influenza outbreak today at a farm near the northern town of Denbighshire, a day after Nigeria reported its first H5N1 avian flu outbreak since late January.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia announced today that a 5-year-old girl died of H5N1 avian influenza, while a hospital official in Vietnam reported that a 30-year-old man is being treated for the disease, apparently marking the country's first human case in a year and a half.

(CIDRAP News) – H5N1 avian influenza has continued to flare up in poultry on two continents this week, with Vietnam, Ghana, and Pakistan all confirming new outbreaks in the past 2 days.

In Vietnam over the weekend, more than 2,000 ducks died, and another 6,000 were culled in various areas affected by outbreaks of H5N1, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported yesterday. The ducks had not been vaccinated.