Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – Thai officials this week stepped up surveillance and prevention efforts against avian influenza, mirroring events taking place across Southeast Asia.

Thai authorities announced they had 100,000 doses of avian flu vaccine in event of a serious poultry outbreak in Thailand, the Thai News Agency reported today. More laboratories also have been opened in the country to speed testing.

(CIDRAP News) – US health officials are warning travelers to Vietnam to take special precautions to protect themselves from avian influenza.

Also, H5N1 avian flu has been detected in poultry in Cambodia for the first time since last September, and a Vietnamese official has said the widespread poultry outbreaks of avian flu in Vietnam may be starting to wane.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnam, mired in a renewed avian influenza outbreak that has led to the death of 12 people and the culling of roughly 1 million poultry since Dec 30, 2004, asked the international community for help this week.

(CIDRAP News) – As Vietnamese prepare to welcome the Year of the Rooster, the chicken is uppermost in the minds of many.

The Lunar New Year, or Tet, is a time of extended celebration in Vietnam. But this year is different. The threat of avian influenza, which has killed 12 Vietnamese and at least one Cambodian since Dec 30, 2004, is dampening the traditional celebrations, particularly as they involve poultry.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnamese officials have confirmed that a Cambodian woman who died Jan 30 in Vietnam had avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The 25-year-old woman apparently was the first person from somewhere other than Vietnam or Thailand to die of the disease since the current series of widespread poultry outbreaks and linked human cases began in late 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – Two Vietnamese girls died of avian influenza over the weekend, and the disease may have claimed its first human victim in Cambodia, according to news services.

A 13-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl became the 11th and 12th people to die of H5N1 avian flu in Vietnam since late December, according to reports. Their illnesses were first reported in the news media Jan 28.

(CIDRAP News) – A 32-year-old man from northern Vietnam died of avian influenza yesterday, and two more confirmed human cases of the disease were reported today, according to news services and the World Health Organization (WHO).

A doctor at Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi said the man, from Phu Tho province, had tested positive for the H5N1 flu strain, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – Instead of finding common ground on pandemic influenza planning, World Health Organization (WHO) members this week hit rocky terrain.

(CIDRAP News) – The idea of stopping an emerging influenza pandemic would have seemed ridiculous until a few years ago, but today the world just might have a chance to do that, according to two flu experts who published opinion pieces this week.

(CIDRAP News) - A reported family cluster of H5N1 avian influenza cases among three brothers in Vietnam may turn out to be only two cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Contrary to some media reports, the WHO said the 36-year-old younger brother of two men who contracted the disease has not been sick, though test results are still pending.