News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Official sources have confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Vietnam and Japan, and one media report said the Vietnamese outbreak may be linked to the deaths of 11 people in Hanoi.

(CIDRAP News) – Thailand and Cambodia joined the list of countries affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza today as both human and poultry cases were confirmed in Thailand and a poultry outbreak was reported in Cambodia.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia today joined the rapidly growing list of countries with poultry outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, while more human cases and deaths were confirmed in Vietnam and Thailand.

(CIDRAP News) – China reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in ducks today, while the World Health Organization (WHO) joined other international groups in appealing for a multinational campaign to stop the disease's march across Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), downplaying statements by a regional FAO official, said today it had no evidence that pigs are involved in transmitting the H5N1 avian influenza virus in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of avian influenza at a farm in Delaware has been blamed on an H7 influenza virus, which does not infect humans, unlike the H5N1 subtype causing the widespread avian flu outbreaks in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – A second outbreak of avian influenza was reported in Japan today, while a United Nations (UN) animal health official suggested it may not be possible to eradicate the disease in Asia.

(CIDRAP News) – South Korea today reported its first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in more than 6 weeks.

News of the Korean outbreak came 2 days after Vietnam reported its 16th human death from H5N1 avian flu and 3 days after international animal health officials again warned Asian countries not to declare victory over the disease too soon.

(CIDRAP News) – Experts in Vietnam confirmed today that avian influenza has spread to an 11th province, the southern Mekong Delta province of Long An, a major poultry breeding area, according to news service reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Overcoming the threat of avian influenza is the single most pressing agricultural and public health issue facing Southeast Asia, Singapore's minister of state for national development, Cedric Foo, said yesterday in opening a regional meeting on the disease, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.