Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian investigators found the H5N1 avian influenza virus in chicken droppings near the home of three people who died of the virus this month, according to a report published yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – In a response to Indonesia's first three fatal human cases of avian influenza, officials killed some infected pigs and poultry yesterday, but not as many as they had planned to, according to news services.

(CIDRAP News) – A Russian official has identified the avian influenza virus that has been killing poultry in Siberia as H5N2, a strain that is not dangerous to humans.

But another Russian official reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) yesterday that the virus had not yet been fully identified. The poultry outbreaks in the Novosibirsk region of southwestern Siberia were first reported last week.

(CIDRAP News) – A news report from Russia today said that an H5 strain of avian influenza has killed hundreds of poultry in Siberia, though a Russian report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said the disease was still unidentified.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that only one of three deaths blamed on avian influenza in Indonesia this week is known so far to have been caused by the disease, saying test results are still awaited in the other two cases.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government promised to take firmer measures to control the virus, which began killing poultry in the nation in 2003 but had caused no human deaths until now.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesian officials confirmed today that a man and his two young daughters who died earlier this month had H5N1 avian influenza, though they had had no known contact with infected poultry.

The 38-year-old man and his daughters, aged 1 and 9, were the first Indonesians to die of the illness. Indonesia has had a number of poultry outbreaks but only one previous human case, an asymptomatic one reported last month.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to stick with the strains of H5N1 avian influenza it chose in April 2004 for use in developing human vaccines against the virus, which many fear will trigger a flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – A new study indicates that H5N1 avian influenza viruses are becoming less deadly to ducks, permitting them to carry the viruses for days or weeks and spread them to more susceptible birds and potentially to humans.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report that the antiviral drug oseltamivir helped mice survive infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, boosting hopes that the drug could be an effective weapon if the virus sparked a human flu pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – An Indonesian man and his two young daughters have died of suspected avian influenza, triggering alarm about possible person-to-person transmission of the H5N1 virus.