Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today denied a widely publicized report that countries dealing with H5N1 avian influenza have been refusing to share clinical samples from human patients, making it difficult for the WHO to monitor changes in the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Initial testing has shown that a man in northern Vietnam has H5N1 avian influenza, marking the first human case in more than 3 weeks, according to news reports today.

Initial tests were positive for Cao The Hai, 55, from Vinh Phuc province, according to Dr. Nguyen Thi Tuong Van of the Institute of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. The news was reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP) today.

(CIDRAP News) – A bleak picture of the world's ability to cope with an influenza pandemic is painted in an essay by infectious-disease and bioterrorism expert Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – After an arduous 10-month battle against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, Thailand has declared itself free of the disease, the Bangkok Post reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Vietnam is moving forward with a plan to fight the spread of avian influenza by vaccinating roughly 600,000 chickens in Ho Chi Minh City, according to news reports today.

A vaccine produced by a French company called Merial will be administered to chickens on commercial farms this month, the Associated Press (AP) reported today, citing Phan Xuan Thao, deputy director of the city's animal health department.

Editor's note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CIDRAP News on May 4 that the total number of laboratories that received test kits containing H2N2 virus samples from Meridian Bioscience Inc. was 4,614, rather than more than 6,000, as stated in this story.

(CIDRAP News) – The recent outbreak of H7 avian influenza in North Korea has been contained, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

The outbreak at three farms near Pyongyang, the capital, was first reported in March. It involves a different strain from the H5N1 virus that has affected nine other Asian countries and killed more than 50 people in the past 16 months.

April 22, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – A 20-year-old woman who died Tuesday in a Vietnamese hospital has been confirmed as Cambodia's fourth victim of H5N1 avian influenza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today.

Chal Bo Pha had suffered high fever and heavy coughing for a week before leaving her home in Kampot Province to go to a hospital across the border in Tien Giang, Vietnam, AFP reported. She died there within hours.

April 20, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – Vietnam will get rid of small live-poultry markets, cull ducks, and convert to factory-style farming in 15 cities and provinces to beat back the H5N1 avian influenza virus, under plans announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) –Vietnamese officials today announced that three more human cases of H5N1 influenza have occurred since April 2 and said the virus appears to be changing into a less virulent, faster-spreading form.