Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Tests have confirmed that a 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman who died in Indonesia last week had avian influenza, raising Indonesia's case tally to 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The announcement follows China's report yesterday of its first two confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian flu on the mainland. The WHO has registered a total of 130 cases, including 67 deaths, since December 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – Investigation of an avian influenza outbreak points to a shipment of finches from Taiwan as the carriers of the H5N1 virus found in a quarantine facility in Sussex, England.

(CIDRAP News) – China today reported two confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, marking the first time the government has confirmed cases on the mainland.

The disease was confirmed in a 9-year-old boy from Hunan province, who has recovered, and in a 24-year-old woman from Anhui province, who died Nov 10, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

(CIDRAP News) – A recent laboratory study has produced more evidence that infection of human lung cells with the H5N1 avian influenza virus leads to intense inflammation similar to what was seen in victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – China's announcement today that it plans to vaccinate all of its poultry against H5N1 avian influenza would launch the country on the largest single immunization effort in history for any species, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official.

News of the vaccination plan came even as China reported two more poultry outbreaks, these in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

(CIDRAP News) – In China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, countries widely seen as ground zero in the global fight against H5N1 avian influenza, efforts to quash the virus are hampered by the lack of a key weapon: money.

(CIDRAP News) – A new suspected case of H5N1 avian influenza was reported in Indonesia today, while still another poultry outbreak was reported in China, its ninth in the past month.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the avian flu case reported in an 18-month-old boy in Thailand last week, while Thai officials said the boy's grandmother has tested negative for the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand has reported its 21st human case of H5N1 avian influenza, while an infected flamingo was found in Kuwait and new poultry outbreaks surfaced in China, according to news reports today.

An 18-month-old boy in Bangkok was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus today, but he was already well on the way to recovery, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Thawat Sunthrajarn, Thailand's disease control director.

(CIDRAP News) – Scattered shortages of influenza vaccine have occurred this fall in the face of increased demand, but everyone who wants a shot should be able to get one before long, the nation's top disease-control official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Concluding a major conference on avian and pandemic influenza today, health officials reported a new level of international agreement on the need to confront the threat and released a list of key steps to do that.