News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A new project to help improve control strategies for avian influenza has been initiated in eight Asian countries, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Avian influenza has been ruled out in a 14-year-old Turkish boy who died over the weekend and in three siblings who were hospitalized with him, according to news services.

Tests on the four children were negative for avian flu, according to Turkish health officials quoted in an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report published yesterday.

(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) – 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) – Thailand reported its eighth fatal human case of H5N1 avian influenza today, while China announced it was lifting quarantine orders for the last two of 49 areas affected by the disease, according to news service reports.

(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.