Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Pigs and stray cats have been found infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Indonesia, adding to the few previous reports of such cases, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – In a development that could complicate avian influenza control efforts, an Indonesian official said this week that some apparently healthy chickens showed evidence of H5N1 virus infection, according to the Jakarta Post.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health and infectious disease experts today called on the United States to develop a "master plan" for development of pandemic influenza vaccines in order to translate scientific advances more rapidly into improved pandemic preparedness.

(CIDRAP News) – Recent tests suggest that an antiviral drug given by intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) injection could eventually serve as another weapon against influenza, according to results presented at a conference last week.

(CIDRAP News) – Initial tests on wild ducks in Illinois suggest they have a low-pathogenic strain of avian influenza, not the deadly H5N1 strain, federal officials said late last week.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia reported its 69th H5N1 avian influenza case today, in the 21-year-old sister of an 11-year-old boy who died of the same disease on Sep 18.

The woman from the Tulungagung district of East Java tested positive for H5N1 today, 4 days after she was hospitalized, according to a Bloomberg News report. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed her 11-year-old brother's case on Sep 25.

(CIDRAP News) – A microbiologist who reviewed the evidence about how influenza viruses spread says that some official guidelines, including the US pandemic influenza plan, may not go far enough in protecting healthcare workers who take care of flu patients.

(CIDRAP News) – A study in which mice were infected with the resurrected 1918 Spanish influenza virus has yielded fresh evidence for the view that the virus could trigger a suicidal immune response—one that has often been compared with the effects of the H5N1 avian flu virus on susceptible humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed reports of two more human H5N1 avian influenza cases, one in Indonesia and one in Thailand, raising the official global tally to 251 cases with 147 deaths.

The two cases involve a 20-year-old Indonesian man who is part of a suspected case cluster in Bandung, West Java, and a 59-year-old farmer from northeastern Thailand. Both cases were reported by news services yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand reported its 25th H5N1 avian influenza case today, a fatal illness in a 60-year-old man who raised fighting roosters.