Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) –Indonesia vowed today not to share H5N1 avian influenza virus samples with the World Health Organization (WHO) until it has a "legally binding" guarantee that the samples won't be used to develop vaccines that the country can't afford, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued a pandemic influenza preparedness plan that defines the agency's current role in federal pandemic planning, such as expediting the review of new vaccines and antivirals, and spells out work it will do in areas such as food safety and targeting counterfeit drugs.

(CIDRAP News) – The accumulation of human cases of H5N1 avian influenza continued with the reporting of one case each in Egypt and Indonesia in the past 2 days.

Officials in Egypt said a 4-year-old boy from the Nile delta town of Daqahliya tested positive yesterday, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report published yesterday. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the case in a notice today.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the first fatal case of H5N1 avian influenza in Laos, involving a 15-year-old girl, while Chinese officials have denied new research claims that several strains of the virus originated in Guangdong province.

Editor's note: This story was revised Mar 7 to clarify information about global influenza vaccine production capacity.

(CIDRAP News) – A 42-year-old woman from Laos' Vientiane province who died yesterday probably had H5N1 avian influenza, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials. Confirmation of the case would mark the country's first human death from the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two cases of H5N1 avian influenza, one in Egypt and one in China, while stating that a disagreement with Indonesia about sharing H5N1 virus samples has not yet been fully resolved.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed Laos' first human case of H5N1 avian influenza, involving a 15-year-old girl from Vientiane, and Egypt and China also have reported new cases.

(CIDRAP News) – A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel today recommended that the agency approve the nation's first H5N1 influenza vaccine, despite new evidence that the vaccine is less protective than reported in a clinical trial last year.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Kuwait have reported finding H5N1 avian influenza in backyard and captive birds at several locations in the past two days, according to news services.