Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – The global death toll from H5N1 avian influenza grew by two today when the World Health Organization (WHO) added a Chinese case dating back to 2003 and the Indonesian case reported yesterday involving a 16-year-old boy. Meanwhile, reports today say another H5N1 death has occurred in Indonesia, this one in a teen girl.

(CIDRAP News) - A World Health Organization (WHO) reference laboratory confirmed today that a 27-year-old man who died on Aug 3 in central Thailand's Uthai Thani province had H5N1 avian influenza.

The WHO said investigators found that the man had contact with household chickens, which started dying about 1 week before the patient began having influenza symptoms.

(CIDRAP News) – A swan tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza at a German zoo yesterday, signaling the virus's re-emergence in the country after a 3-month lull.

(CIDRAP News) – In an apparent policy shift, Indonesia promised today to freely share genetic data on H5N1 avian influenza viruses, according to a Bloomberg news report.

That announcement comes 2 days after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) pledged to "systematically" publish avian flu virus sequences and urged others to follow suit.

(CIDRAP News) – Concern about H5N1 avian influenza intensified in Thailand and Vietnam today as health officials reported more suspected human cases, but Indonesian officials said six people in two suspected case clusters in North Sumatra tested negative.

(CIDRAP News) – Seven people in Karo district of North Sumatra, Indonesia, are being treated for suspected H5N1 avian influenza, raising concern that the disease may have resurfaced near where human-to-human transmission was documented in an extended family in May.

(CIDRAP News) – Amid a rising number of cases of suspected avian flu in birds and humans, Thailand's health minister yesterday declared that all of the country's provinces are on alert, triggering tighter rules on bird transport and disposal.

(CIDRAP News) – A Thai province is culling 300,000 chickens after a laboratory test confirmed an avian influenza outbreak, and the country's health ministry is monitoring 80 patients who are suspected of having avian flu.

(CIDRAP News) – In an experiment designed to mimic events that could launch an influenza pandemic, a synthetic influenza virus made by combining an H5N1 avian flu virus with a human flu virus turned out to be no more contagious in an animal model than the natural H5N1 virus, US scientists are reporting this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Laos has reported its first major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in more than 2 years, on a poultry farm in an area bordering part of Thailand that has recently been hit by the disease.