Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – China has recorded its seventh human case of H5N1 avian influenza, involving a 41-year-old factory worker who died Dec 21, according to the Chinese news service Xinhua.

The victim was a woman surnamed Zhou who lived in Sanming City in the eastern province of Fujian, Xinhua reported today. She became ill with fever and pneumonia on Dec 6 and was hospitalized 2 days later.

(CIDRAP News) – Before adjourning last week, the US Senate passed and sent to President Bush a bill providing $3.8 billion for pandemic influenza preparedness and a controversial liability shield for those who produce and administer drugs and vaccines used in a declared public health emergency.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official recently urged China to share more information on avian influenza outbreaks in poultry and to change farming practices to help prevent the disease.

In addition, China said it has developed a new antiviral drug for flu patients and a new avian flu vaccine for poultry, both of which are said to be better than existing products.

(CIDRAP News) – A new report says oseltamivir-resistant forms of H5N1 avian influenza virus were found in two Vietnamese girls who died of the infection, raising doubts about the antiviral drug that many countries are counting on to help protect them from a potential flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's human death toll from H5N1 avian influenza rose to 11 today with the report that tests have confirmed that a man and a boy who died last week had the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory tests in Indonesia indicated that an 8-year-old boy who died Dec 15 had avian influenza, making him potentially the country's 11th victim of the disease, Indonesian officials reported yesterday.

The local test results were awaiting confirmation by a World Health Organization (WHO) reference lab in Hong Kong, Hariadi Wibisono of the Indonesian health ministry told Bloomberg News.

(CIDRAP News) – US customs agents have seized more than 50 shipments of fake oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the antiviral drug being stockpiled in preparation for a possible influenza pandemic, according to reports published yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US House of Representatives early today approved $3.8 billion in funds for pandemic influenza preparedness, well below the $7.1 billion requested by President George W. Bush in November.

(CIDRAP News) – A sixth human case of H5N1 avian influenza has been confirmed in China, and two more cases are suspected in Indonesia, according to reports today.

The Chinese Ministry of Health has confirmed H5N1 infection in a 35-year-old man from the southeastern province of Jiangxi, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. He became ill Dec 4 and is under intensive care in a hospital, the agency said.

Editor's note: The title and first two paragraphs of this story were revised Dec 16 to correct a statement in the original that gave a more positive reflection of the trial results described below than may be warranted. The original version said that Sanofi Pasteur had described the trial results as "promising," but the company actually said only that the results were "a sign of progress."