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) – 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) – Thailand reported two more confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza and another death today, while the United Nations warned that the virus is still spreading in Asian poultry.

In the United States, meanwhile, an outbreak of avian influenza at four live-bird markets in New Jersey was attributed to a low-pathogenic strain that poses no threat to humans.

(CIDRAP News) – A leopard in a zoo near Bangkok, Thailand, died of the same H5N1 avian influenza virus that has struck eight Asian countries, according to news service reports today.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more human deaths caused by H5N1 avian influenza were reported today, while United Nations health officials again warned that it will take intense efforts to contain the disease.

Officials in Thailand confirmed a fatal case of H5N1 infection in a 4-year-old boy, who died Feb 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. Thailand has had nine human cases, including seven deaths.

(CIDRAP News) – The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed two house cats in Thailand, but the event probably does not signal an increased threat to human health, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – A detailed report on 10 Vietnamese patients who had H5N1 avian influenza, including eight who died, suggests that no currently available drugs are very effective against the disease.