(CIDRAP News) More than half of Americans are concerned about the threat of avian influenza reaching the United States, but few are "very concerned" and fewer still have looked into getting an antiviral drug to protect themselves, according to a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
(CIDRAP News) Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia today reported finding H5N1 avian influenza in swans, making Georgia the 16th country to report its first case this month.
Dead swans found in the village of Adliya, in the Black Sea coastal region of Adjara, tested positive, said Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, as quoted in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.
(CIDRAP News) H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds in yet another European country, Slovakia, while tests of samples from 95 people in India have revealed no cases of avian influenza so far, according to reports today.
(CIDRAP News) The US government recently agreed to collaborate with France's Institut Pasteur (IP) on efforts to increase the world's ability to detect influenza viruses that could lead to a human flu pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) says H5N1 avian influenza has infected birds in 14 more countries since the beginning of this month, and recent genetic changes in the virus may have something to do with its rapid spread in birds.
(CIDRAP News) Two human cases of H5N1 avian flu have been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in recent daysone each in Iraq and Indonesiaand dozens of sick people in several countries are being tested.
In addition, the WHO said today that studies of the human H5N1 cases in Turkey have produced no clear evidence that the virus has changed its behavior in humans or improved its ability to spread from person to person.
(CIDRAP News) The rapidly growing list of countries facing H5N1 avian influenza in birds has swelled to include Egypt, France, and India in the past 4 days, and the virus is suspected in Bosnia as well.
(CIDRAP News) – Iran, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia have joined the list of countries with H5N1 avian influenza in wild birds in the past few days, and the virus may have spread to as many as nine states in Nigeria, according to recent reports.
(CIDRAP News) A large majority of about 300 business officials at a conference in Minneapolis believe that an influenza pandemic would significantly affect their business, but only 18% of the companies have completed a preparedness plan, according to a poll taken yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) Speakers at a national conference in Minneapolis today sought to impress business leaders with the potentially disastrous effects of an influenza pandemic without scaring them into thinking that preparing for one is futile.
