Avian Influenza and the Pandemic Threat

UPI; 12 May 2008 – A new outbreak of birdflu in South Korea's capital has prompted North Korea to place its quarantine officials on high alert.

AP; 12 May 2008 – South Korean officials said Monday they have killed all poultry in Seoul, the capital, to curb the spread of bird flu following a new outbreak of the disease in the city.

Xinhua; 12 May 2008 – Bird flu has recently hit Vietnam's southern Long An province, raising the total number of localities currently affected by the disease to five, according to local newspaper Pioneer Monday.

Xinhua; 11 May 2008 – The South Korean government on Sunday confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among live poultry in the capital city of Seoul.

AFP; 10 May 2008 – South Korea will double its stockpiles of antiviral flu medicine Tamiflu as avian flu has spread through most the country, health officials said Saturday.

Reuters; 10 May 2008 – Japan has found the H5N1 strain of bird flu in another swan in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, the prefectural government of Hokkaido said on its website on Saturday.

AP; 10 May 2008 – South Korea says it will double its stockpile of the antiviral drug Tamiflu as bird flu spreads among poultry across the country.

AFP; 9 May 2008 – Bird flu has spread to the hilly Darjeeling district of eastern India which has been hit by avian influenza several times already this year, a minister said Saturday.

Reuters; 9 May 2008 – The World Health Organisation called on Friday for more collaborative research into the bird flu virus, which it said could help reduce death and illness in a human influenza pandemic.

Xinhua; 9 May 2008 – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has taken measures to keep bird flu from infiltrating into the country, the official news agency KCNA quoted a medical official as saying on Friday.

Reuters; 9 May 2008 – Veterinary workers were getting ready to cull thousands of backyard poultry to contain an outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal which has struggled to control the virus since January.

CIDRAP; 9 May 2008 – Authorities in India's West Bengal state today confirmed a new H5N1 virus outbreak in the Darjeeling district, as agriculture officials in South Korea reported that the virus had struck birds in the eastern part of the country, pushing the number of recent outbreaks to 35.

Reuters; 8 May 2008 – A South Korean soldier tested for bird flu did not contract the deadly virus and will be released from hospital, according to a statement obtained on Friday.

ThePoultrySite; 8 May 2008 – Experts from the World Health Organisation have this week revised their guidance measures that spell out how a country can prepare itself to tackle a bird flu epidemic on a scale yet unseen.

eFluxMedia; 8 May 2008 – During a conference held in Geneva on May 6, World Health Organization experts warned on the increased risk of a human bird flu pandemic, as the bird flu virus gains more ground than ever.

Xinhua; 8 May 2008 – Bird flu has stricken fowl flocks in Vietnam's southern Can Tho city over the past few days, raising the total number of affected localities in the country to three, according to Vietnam's Department of Animal Health on Thursday.

Xinhua; 8 May 2008 – Hospitals in Seoul were put on alert for bird flu after health officials issued emergency warnings to all hospitals in the capital city to watch out possible bird flu symptoms, the Korea Herald reported on Thursday.

Xinhua; 7 May 2008 – Bill Gates, founder of the Microsoft Corporation, will help Indonesia develop a human bird-flu vaccine, the Jakarta Post reported Wednesday.

AP; 7 May 2008 – The world still faces a substantial threat of a flu pandemic and countries need to speed up preparations for a global outbreak, health experts said Tuesday.

Reuters; 7 May 2008 – Indonesia is trying to defend the interests of poorer nations by refusing to share bird flu samples with the West and is locked in a cultural misunderstanding over the issue, Jakarta's health minister said on Wednesday.

AFP; 7 May 2008 – Bird flu has spread to South Korea's capital Seoul despite a massive nationwide cull that saw the slaughter of six million ducks and chickens in recent weeks, officials said Tuesday.

CIDRAP; 6 May 2008 – World Health Organization (WHO) officials today kicked off a 4-day meeting in Geneva to begin revising pandemic preparedness guidance for countries, amid warnings that the risk of an influenza pandemic has not waned since the last update.

Reuters; 6 May 2008 – The risk of a human influenza pandemic remains real and is probably growing as the bird flu virus becomes entrenched in poultry in more countries, health officials warned on Tuesday.

Reuters; 6 May 2008 – South Korea's worst outbreak of bird flu has spread to the capital with agriculture ministry officials saying on Tuesday four dead birds raised at a Seoul district government office had tested positive.

Xinhua; 5 May 2008 – Two dead swans found respectively on April 24 and Monday in northern Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture have been tested positive of the highly virulent H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, Kyodo News reported.

Reuters; 5 May 2008 – Japan has confirmed a fresh case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, this time in a dead swan on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, the prefectural government said on its website on Monday.

Xinhua; 5 May 2008 – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is taking measures to prevent avian flu from spreading to the country following an outbreak in neighboring South Korea, the official news agency KCNA said Monday.

CIDRAP; 5 May 2008 – Agriculture officials in South Korea said H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks have been reported in six of the country's nine provinces, while authorities in Japan announced today that wild swans at a two more sites have tested positive for the virus.

AFP; 5 May 2008 – A dead swan tested positive for bird flu in northern Japan on Monday, the environment ministry said, less than a week after officials announced the first detection of the deadly virus in 13 months.

CIDRAP; 5 May 2008 – Prodding citizens to prepare for pandemics and other disasters is a constant challenge, but public health officials in North Carolina have a creative approach that didn't require thinking outside the box, but rather inside of it—in the form of touch-screen computer kiosks.

AFP; 3 May 2008 – Bird flu outbreaks have spread to six of South Korea's nine provinces despite a massive cull which saw the slaughter of more than five million chickens and ducks last month, officials said Saturday.

IRIN; 2 May 2008 – Indonesia, indeed the world, had never seen anything like it. In a sleepy Balinese village, panic flares as some 20 people are feared to have suddenly been infected with avian influenza.

AFP; 2 May 2008 – Thailand on Friday declared itself free of bird flu after no outbreaks of the deadly virus were reported over the past 90 days.

CIDRAP; 2 May 2008 – An H5N1 influenza vaccine based on a weakened adenovirus was tested successfully in mice and may offer advantages as a tool for combating a human flu pandemic, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Purdue University.

WHO; 30 April 2008

WHO; 30 Apr 2008 – The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced a new case of human infection of H5N1 avian influenza.

Reuters; 29 Apr 2008 – Nepal has issued a bird flu alert and is testing poultry along the border with India, where the virus rages despite the culling of tens of thousands of chickens since 2006, officials said.

Himalayan Times; 29 Apr 2008 – In view of the perceived threat of bird flu, six of the 16 districts in the eastern region of the country have been declared high-risk zones.

Reuters; 28 Apr 2008 – Japan has detected a strain of bird flu in four wild swans after stepping up checks following major outbreaks of the disease in neighboring South Korea, local and government officials said on Monday.

Xinhua; 28 Apr 2008 – Bird flu has recently hit Vietnam's northern Son La province, raising the total number of localities currently affected by the disease to three, according to local newspaper Young People reported Monday.

TFN; 28 Apr 2008 – Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi-Aventis, said it has received an order worth $192.5 million from the U.S. government for vaccines against a new strain of avian influenza.

NDTV; 27 April 2008 – Bird flu has hit Tripura and has spread to Kamalpur in Dhalai district while Mohanpur and Bishalgarh near Agartala are already infected.

Newsline365; 26 Apr 2008 – The shadow of avian flu looms large over the states of eastern India. The disease which has put the future of poultry businessmen in the eastern states at stake has raised its ugly head in the neighboring state of Tripura.

AFP; 25 Apr 2008 – Hundreds of Indonesian villagers and health workers took part in a massive drill here Friday to prepare for a potentially devastating outbreak of human-to-human bird flu.

Reuters; 25 Apr 2008 – Indonesia, which has the world's highest human death toll from bird flu, launched an exercise on the resort island of Bali on Friday to test its ability to deal with a pandemic triggered by the virus.

WHO; 24 Apr 2008

Reuters; 24 Apr 2008 – GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Authorities battling an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Tripura blamed Bangladesh for the spread on Thursday, but many experts said India was not doing enough to contain the virus.

AP; 24 Apr 2008 – Indonesia does not want money for its samples of a deadly bird flu virus, a health official said Wednesday after the U.S. criticized his country for refusing to share the samples with the international community.

Scientific American; 23 Apr 2008 – In the absence of news reports, bird flu might seem to have flown the coop. Unfortunately, it never actually went away—and is now worse than ever.

Xinhua; 23 Apr 2008 – At least 42 representatives of international agencies and foreign governments are to witness a bird flu handling exercise in Bali on April 25-27, sources close to the event's organizers said on Wednesday.

AFP; 23 Apr 2008 – An Indian state reported new bird flu cases Tuesday, little more than a week after it finished culling thousands of chickens to contain an outbreak of the disease.

CIDRAP; 23 Apr 2008 – An Indonesian health official, responding to recent comments by the US health secretary, today denied that Indonesia wants financial compensation if it resumes sharing its H5N1 avian influenza virus samples.

Reuters; 22 Apr 2008 – Talks between Indonesia and the United States over the future of a U.S. naval medical lab have become entangled in an international dispute over how to share crucial bird flu samples, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Monday.

Reuters; 22 Apr 2008 – Authorities in a remote northeastern state of India prepared to cull thousands of chickens after a fresh outbreak of bird flu in poultry was detected on Tuesday, officials said.

Reuters; 22 Apr 2008 – South Korea is testing to see if one of the workers taking part in a mass cull of poultry infected with bird flu may have become infected with the deadly virus, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

WSJ; 21 April 2008 – South Korea will slaughter at least 5.32 million birds to contain its latest outbreak of bird flu, the highest-ever number of poultry killed in the country to stop the disease's spread.

Reuters; 21 Apr 2008 – South Korea on Monday said it planned to cull a record 5.3 million birds as it announced its 17th case of bird flu in three weeks, in what has become the country's fastest and biggest outbreak of avian influenza.

Xinhua; 21 Apr 2008 – Vietnam has conducted its first large-scale trial of a locally-produced H5N1 vaccine on 30 volunteers, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Monday.

TF; 20 Apr 2008 – Almost 5 million poultry have been slaughtered in South Korea to contain the spread of bird flu since it hit the country earlier this month, the agriculture ministry said Sunday.

AFP; 20 Apr 2008 – Myanmar's military government on Sunday declared the country bird-flu free after three months without an outbreak of the deadly virus, state media reported.

Xinhua; 19 Apr 2008 – The South Korean government confirmed Saturday a new outbreak of H5N1 strain of bird flu, which becomes the 25th confirmed cases of the deadly epidemic in the country since late March.

J&C; 19 Apr 2008 – Purdue University scientists and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are developing a vaccine to protect humans against avian flu and new forms of the disease.

Reuters; 19 Apr 2008 – South Korea's Farm Ministry reported on Saturday a new outbreak of bird flu at a chicken farm in the southwest, taking the total confirmed cases to 16 in poultry just over two weeks.

AFP; 18 Apr 2008 – More than 60 million Indonesians could be infected with deadly bird flu if the virus mutates into a form transmissible between humans, an official said Friday.

Reuters; 18 Apr 2008 – An experimental bird flu vaccine that uses a common cold virus and bits of DNA from the H5N1 virus appears to stimulate an immune response in mice, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

CIDRAP; 18 Apr 2008 – The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed that a 2-year-old Egyptian boy has H5N1 avian influenza, which raised the country's case count to 50.

AFP; 18 Apr 2008 – A new bird flu vaccine being developed by US researchers could provide broader protection, last longer and be easier to mass produce than existing vaccines.

Reuters; 17 Apr 2008 – South Korea said on Thursday it had culled 3 million farmed birds and confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu, as the country grapples with its worst avian influenza outbreak in four years.

RIA; 17 Apr 2008 – Tests confirmed that a two year-old Egyptian boy has been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, bringing the number of cases to 50 in the country, the state-run MENA news agency said.

Xinhua; 17 Apr 2008 – The Philippine government on Thursday lifted a temporary ban on imports of fowls and poultry products from Italy as the risks of bird flu waned in the European country, local media reported.

UPI; 17 Apr 2008 – South Korean agriculture officials boosted the country's bird flu risk level to 'orange' this week after recent outbreaks on poultry farms.

WHO; 17 Apr 2008 – The Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt has announced a new human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection.

Reuters; 16 Apr 2008 – Flu viruses evolve freshly somewhere in east or southeast Asia every year, spreading around the world over the next nine months before dying out, researchers reported on Wednesday.

AFP; 16 Apr 2008 – South Korea on Wednesday issued a nationwide bird flu alert, deployed troops and put firefighters on standby to try to contain the spread of the disease, officials said.

Reuters; 16 Apr 2008 – A 2-year-old Egyptian boy has been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the number of cases in the most populous Arab country to 50, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday.

AP; 16 Apr 2008 – South Korea dispatched 200 soldiers to chicken farms Wednesday to slaughter poultry infected with bird flu, as the government confirmed another outbreak of the disease.

AFP; 16 Apr 2006 – Japan is to vaccinate thousands of medical workers and officials against bird flu to prepare for a possible pandemic, a health ministry official said Wednesday.

AP; 16 Apr 2008 – The world is less safe because Indonesia is withholding samples of the bird flu virus from the international community, the top U.S. health official said Wednesday, adding that he is hopeful the issue can be resolved soon.

Reuters; 16 Apr 2008 – Outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in West Bengal, which shares a long border with Bangladesh, have not yet been contained, a senior health official in said on Wednesday.

UPI; 16 Apr 2008 – Russian health officials say a deadly strain of bird flu has been confirmed in Russia's Far East after 10 birds died last week.

Reuters; 16 Apr 2008 – South Korea upgraded its bird flu alert to the second highest on Wednesday and sent in soldiers to help cull and bury birds amid the worst poultry influenza outbreak in four years.

CIDRAP; 16 Apr 2008 – Acting on the premise that "disasters discriminate," the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and several partner groups yesterday released a lengthy set of proposed guidelines for protecting the most vulnerable people during an influenza pandemic.

IRIN; 15 Apr 2008 – Despite fewer outbreaks of bird flu in the first half of April, health experts in Bangladesh warn the threat is far from over.

Reuters; 15 Apr 2008 – A small biotechnology company trying to develop needle-free vaccines won a boost to its efforts on Tuesday with U.S. government approval to test a bird flu skin patch on more people.

RIA; 15 Apr 2008 – Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of a deadly strain of bird flu in a village in the Primorye Territory, in Russia's Far East, where ten birds suddenly died last week, local officials said Tuesday.

Reuters; 15 Apr 2008 – Japan plans to vaccinate 6,000 medical workers and quarantine officers with stockpiled bird flu vaccines to check their effectiveness and possible side-effects, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Reuters; 15 Apr 2008 – South Korea said on Tuesday it was investigating four new suspected cases of bird flu, including one near Seoul, adding to a string of recent outbreaks and raising concerns the disease may be spreading across the country.

CIDRAP; 15 Apr 2008 – Japan's health ministry today said it was on the verge of approving a plan to administer prepandemic vaccine to healthcare workers, which would make it the world's first country to tap its national stockpile for this purpose.

Korea Times; 14 Apr 2008 – Avian influenza is spreading in an unusual pattern, arousing fears over the possibility of the virus changing into one that infects humans and later becomes transferable directly from human to human.

AFP; 14 Apr 2008 – Indonesia and the United States must work together to prevent a global bird flu pandemic, the top US health official said here Monday.

Reuters; 14 Apr 2008 – Indonesia, which has the highest death toll from bird flu of any country, will launch a plan later this week to deal with a possible influenza pandemic, officials said on Monday.

Xinhua; 14 Apr 2008 – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed the issue of sending bird flu virus sample from the country to the World Health Organization with a senior U.S. health official here Monday.

UPI; 13 Apr 2008 – Quarantines increased in South Korea Sunday amid reports of more suspected bird flu cases, officials said.

AP; 13 Apr 2008 – South Korea's government confirmed a fourth outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the country's southwest Sunday, as the tally of birds slaughtered to control the spread of the disease rose to 1.3 million.

Reuters; 13 Apr 2008 – South Korea on Sunday confirmed its latest case of bird flu as from the deadly H5N1 strain, adding to a string of outbreaks in recent weeks which led to the culling of more than half a million poultry.

AFP; 12 Apr 2008 – China has rejected a study which found a probable case of human-to-human bird flu transmission in the country, state media reported.

Xinhua; 13 Apr 2008 – The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Sunday that suspected outbreaks of avian influenza have been discovered in Muan, South Jeolla province.

Reuters; 11 Apr 2008 – An Egyptian woman died of bird flu on Friday, the 22nd fatality and the 49th case of the disease among humans in Egypt, the state news agency MENA said.

Xinhua; 11 Apr 2008 – There is no clear evidence in China indicating the H5N1 human bird flu virus has mutated into a pandemic strain, according to the Ministry of Health on Friday.

Retuers; 11 Apr 2008 – France's agriculture ministry lowered the level of risk for bird flu to weak from moderate on Friday due to positive developments in countries which have recently seen cases of the H5N1 virus in birds.

Reuters; 9 Apr 2008 – Closing schools during an influenza pandemic could prevent one in seven cases of flu, British researchers said on Wednesday in a study that suggests such action would have less impact than some other estimates.

Reuters; 9 Apr 2008 – South Korea reported a new outbreak of bird flu on Wednesday at a duck farm in the same southwest area where workers in the past week have culled about half a million poultry at three other infected farms.

Xinhua; 9 Apr 2008 – Ukraine lifted ban on poultry imports from Britain introduced in early 2007 due to an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu in Britain.

AFP; 9 Apr 2008 – Closing schools during a deadly flu pandemic could cut the overall number of infections by 15 percent, saving tens of thousands of lives, according to a study released Wednesday.

Reuters; 8 Apr 2008 – India began culling thousands of chickens on Tuesday and checking people for fever in remote northeastern villages on the border with Bangladesh after tests on dead poultry confirmed bird flu infections.

AP; 6 Apr 2008 – Chinese health officials have confirmed that a father caught bird flu from his son last December, according to a report released Tuesday.

Reuters; 7 Apr 2008 – A 24-year-old Chinese man who died of bird flu in December passed the virus directly to his father in a rare case of human-to-human transmission of the virus, doctors reported on Monday.

Xinhua; 7 Apr 2008 – There has been an outbreak of bird flu in India's northeast state Tripura, officials said Monday.

Reuters; 7 Apr 2008 – South Korea on Monday confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu at a duck farm in the southwest and said it was investigating two other possible cases days after reporting an outbreak at a nearby chicken farm.

Xinhua; 7 APr 2008 – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has opened a regional center in Thailand stocked with supplies to combat a potential outbreak of avian influenza (AI) in Southeast Asia, according to a press release issued here on Monday.

AFP; 7 Apr 2008 – A 24-year old man in China probably infected his father with the H5N1 strain of bird flu before dying, renewing concerns that the disease could one day spread easily among humans, according to a study released Tuesday.

AFP; 6 Apr 2008 – Authorities were bracing to contain a suspected bird flu outbreak in another Indian state bordering Bangladesh, a senior official said.

AFP; 5 Apr 2008 – An Egyptian teenager died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu on Saturday, the health ministry said, the 21st person to succumb to the virus since it was discovered here in 2006.

5 Apr 2008 – An Egyptian man has died of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, bringing the number of fatalities in Egypt to 21, a World Health Organisation official said on Saturday.

BBC; 4 Apr 2008 – The first case of human-to-human transmission of avian flu in Pakistan has been confirmed.

AP; 4 Apr 2008 – Quarantine workers have destroyed more than 100,000 chickens in South Korea following the first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in the country in more than a year, an official said Friday.

Xinhua; 4 Apr 2008 – Vietnam has recently imported from China 60 million doses of vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 to prevent outbreaks among poultry, local newspaper Industry and Trade on Friday.

Reuters; 4 Apr 2008 – South Korea has started culling over 300,000 chickens and other poultry after confirming an outbreak of highly virulent bird flu at a farm in the southwest -- its first case in 13 months, the country's farm ministry said.

AAGM; 4 Apr 2008 – Although the panic generated by the news of the recent outbreak of the Bird Flu Virus in Northern Cameroon has since died down, there has been the need to put up strategies to prevent or handle it, if it does occur again.

CIDRAP; 4 Apr 2008 – Agriculture officials in South Korea today confirmed that large numbers of chicken deaths at a commercial farm in the southwestern part of the country were caused by H5N1 avian influenza.

FAO; 3 Apr 2008 – A major new and wide-ranging overview from FAO: The experience acquired with H5N1 HPAI in recent years by scientists and animal health and other experts in their efforts to combat avian influenza has produced a wealth of knowledge that is helping reshape many long-held views about the disease and offering new insights into how it spreads and how it can best be controlled, if not eliminated.

Xinhua; 3 Apr 2008 – China has lifted a bird flu quarantine in the southern city of Guangzhou after a 21-day period in which no new cases were reported, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Thursday.

Reuters; 3 Apr 2008 – At least three brothers in Pakistan were infected with the bird flu virus last year, and some human-to-human spread likely occurred, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

CIDRAP; 3 Apr 2008 – China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) yesterday approved the country's first prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccine, an inactivated whole-virus product made by Sinovac, a Beijing-based biotechnology company.

WHO; 3 April 2008 – Two additional H5N1 cases were confirmed by serological testing, thus providing final H5N1 infection test results on a previously reported family cluster in Peshawar.

Xinhua; 2 Apr 2008 – 22-month toddler in Indonesia's West Sumatra province has been tested positive of bird flu, which already killed 107 people in the sprawling archipelago, health officials said Wednesday.

Bloomberg; 2 Apr 2008 – A bird flu virus that killed dogs in South Korea can spread from one dog to another, showing that the disease is capable of crossing species and causing widespread sickness in mammals, a study found.

Xinhua; 2 Apr 2008 – China has banned imports of poultry and related products from Turkey to prevent the spread of bird flu, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Wednesday.

Reuters; 2 Apr 2008

Xinhua; 2 Apr 2008 – China's food and drug regulators on Wednesday authorized a domestic pharmaceutical firm to begin commercial production of a human bird flu vaccine, following more than two years of clinical trials.

Reuters; 2 Apr 2008 – South Korea is investigating a suspected bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm in the southwest of the country, the food and agriculture ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Xinhua; 2 Apr 2008 – A 22-month toddler in Indonesia's West Sumatra province has been tested positive of bird flu, which already killed 107 people in the sprawling archipelago, health officials said Wednesday.

Xinhua; 31 Mar 2008 – A 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl have died of bird flu in recent days in Indonesia, bringing the total death toll from the H5N1 strain to 107, the Health Ministry said in a statement here Monday.

AAGM; 31 March 2008 – Federal Government has obtained a credit of $50 million from the World Bank under its emergency funds for the implementation of the Avian lnfluenza Control Project (AICP).

Reuters; 30 Mar 2008 – An Indonesian child has tested positive for bird flu, pushing the country's total confirmed human cases to 130, a health ministry official said on Monday.

Xinhua; 30 Mar 2008 – With the rise of temperature, bird flu that battered the growing poultry industry in Bangladesh now started to ease off, an expert of the Livestock Department said Sunday.

Reuters; 30 Mar 2008 – An influenza pandemic can be avoided if proper disease surveillance and control measures are carried out promptly and thoroughly, leading bird flu expert and microbiologist Yi Guan said.

UPI; 29 Mar 2008 – Russia needs to take steps to prevent a human pandemic from bird flu, a government health official said.

Reuters; 28 Mar 2008 – France's agriculture ministry raised the level of risk for bird flu to moderate from low on Friday, a day after Switzerland reported its first case for two years of the deadly H5N1 strain.

ScienceDaily; 28 Mar 2008 – Manipulating a previously identified protein may be the key to developing an effective H5N1 influenza A virus vaccine say researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo.

Xinhua; 28 Mar 2008 – A 15-year-old boy from Indonesia's West Java province died just after he was admitted to the Hasan Sadikin Hospital to receive intensive medical treatment for alleged bird flu symptoms, local press said Friday.

Reuters; 28 Mar 2008 – Thousands of chickens have been culled in a bid to contain an outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal which has struggled to control the virus since January.

Reuters; 27 Mar 2008 – Switzerland reported the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the country in two years in a duck on Sempachersee lake, veterinary authorities said on Thursday.

IRIN; 27 Mar 2008 – As the Indonesian government moves to stem the spread of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its latest report stated that Indonesia’s bird-flu situation remains "critical”.

FAO; 26 Mar 2008 – Ducks, people and rice paddies – rather than chickens – are the major factors behind outbreaks of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam, and are probably behind outbreak persistence in other countries of the region such as Cambodia and Lao PDR.

AP; 26 Mar 2008 – Chickens used to roam every dusty street in every village across Egypt, and many of its city alleys too.

Xinhua; 26 Mar 2008 – The World Bank Group on Wednesday approved a six million U.S. dollars grant to support Cambodia's efforts to implement a national plan to minimize the threats from avian and human influenza, and to prepare its health systems to respond to any possible outbreak in the future.

UN News; 26 Mar 2008 – Ducks, rice and people – and not chickens – have emerged as the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam, according to a new study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Reuters; 26 Mar 2008 – Hong Kong will resume classes for schoolchildren next week after scientists confirmed that seasonal flu viruses circulating in the city had not mutated to become more vicious, public health officials said on Wednesday.

AFP; 26 Mar 2008 – Concentrations of ducks, rice paddies and people are primarily responsible for outbreaks of potentially deadly bird flu across Asia, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said Wednesday.

BusinessWeek; 25 Mar 2008 – The new VereFlu chip combines two existing molecular tests—Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and microarray—a "world first", according to Veredus CEO, Dr. Rosemary Tan.

Xinhua; 25 Mar 2008 – The German government declared on Tuesday the country is free of bird flu, with no cases of deadly H5N1 avian influenza discovered in wild birds or domestic poultry for the past three months.

AFP; 25 Mar 2008 – US officials on Tuesday officially opened a stockpile of equipment in Thailand designed to help Asian nations react rapidly to battle outbreaks of potentially deadly bird flu.

AP; 25 Mar 2008 – Intensive rice farming and large duck populations — not the number of chickens raised — may be the best predictors of where bird flu might develop in Southeast Asia, according to researchers reviewing outbreaks in Vietnam and Thailand.

CIDRAP; 25 Mar 2008 – The first of three US-funded supply stockpiles aimed at helping authorities in Asia stamp out avian influenza outbreaks opened near Bangkok today.

CIDRAP; 25 Mar 2008 – Recent pandemic influenza response exercises have helped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) improve its tools for making policy decisions quickly, according to senior CDC officials.>

FAO; 25 Mar 2008 – French veterinary experts will help FAO fight transboundary and other animal diseases under a partnership agreement signed here today.

NYT; 25 Mar 2008 – The avian flu situation in Indonesia is grave, and the risk of mutation into a human pandemic form will worsen if more is not done, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week.

Xinhua; 24 Mar 2008 – Singapore's biomedical firm Veredus Laboratories has completed successfully trials and begun marketing a new device that can detect more than ten influenza strains, including the avian flu, local media reported Monday.

UPI; 24 March 2008 – The British government is taking an all-hazards approach to national security, saying infectious disease and extreme weather are as threatening as terrorism.

BN; 24 Mar2008 – Scientists in the Netherlands tracking the spread of bird flu in wild ducks say mallards may be the best long-distance carrier of the deadly H5N1 virus.

NYT; 23 Mar 2008 – … five years after an avian flu outbreak in Asia made pandemic flu planning a priority, some experts are concerned that states have not been equally vigilant about preparing, and as attention and federal financing begin to decrease, they fear that preparedness efforts will slacken.

Reuters; 24 Mar 2008 – Europe's top semiconductor maker, STMicroelectronics, said it has developed a portable chip to detect influenza viruses including bird flu in humans.

UPI; 24 Mar 2008 – The British government is taking an all-hazards approach to national security, saying infectious disease and extreme weather are as threatening as terrorism.

Reuters; 24 Mar 2008 – Authorities in Bangladesh said on Monday they have culled more than 200,000 chickens at different farms over the last two weeks over suspected bird flu outbreaks, although the disease had begun subsiding across the country.

dpa; 24 Mar 2008 – Singapore - A portable chip the size of a thumbnail has been developed to rapidly detect human strains of influenza viruses including the bird flu, STMicroelectronics and Veredus Laboratories said on Monday.

Reuters; 24 Mar 2008 – Indonesia will not fully share bird flu virus samples with the World Health Organization until a new global mechanism is in place, a senior official said on Monday.

AP; 24 Mar 2008 – Indonesia will ban the trade of live chickens in the capital in 2010 to sharpen the fight against bird flu in world's hardest-hit nation, a livestock official said Monday.

Reuters; 22 Mar 2008 – Turkish authorities quarantined a village in northwestern Turkey and began culling poultry after test results showed that chicken deaths there had been caused by bird flu, state run Anatolian said on Saturday.

VietNamNews; 22 Mar 2008 – Twenty-four out of 104 samples of illegally imported chickens confiscated since February have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, Lang Son Animal Health Department reported yesterday.

AP; 22 Mar 2008 – ISTANBUL, Turkey: Authorities detected bird flu in chickens at a village in northwestern Turkey and culled 1,000 birds, state-run media said Saturday.

Xinhua; 21 Mar 2008 – China is intensifying the monitoring of bird migration to prevent any further outbreaks of bird flu, Xinhua learnt from the State Forestry Administration on Friday.

TFN; 21 Mar 2008 – Authorities in northeastern Greece have been placed on alert after bird flu was detected among chickens in a Turkish border village, the Athens News Agency reported.

AFP; 21 Mar 2008 – Health workers in India's West Bengal state have begun culling poultry after a fresh outbreak of deadly bird flu, officials said.

Xinhua; 21 Mar 2008 – Bird flu has recently stricken poultry in the Vietnamese southern Ca Mau province, raising the total number of currently affected localities nationwide to eight, local newspaper People's Army reported Friday.

Daily Mail; 20 March 2008 – The greatest threat facing Britain is neither a terror attack nor climate change...but a flu pandemic, Gordon Brown said yesterday.

CP; 20 Mar 2008 – Makers of a patch that ramps up the immune system's response to influenza vaccine reported impressive results Thursday, showing that a vaccine against H5N1 avian flu given with the patch raised what are thought to be protective levels of antibodies with a single dose.

Turkish Daily; 20 Mar 2008 – Authorities have imposed a quarantine in a northwestern village close to the border with Greece after bird flu was detected among chicken, the Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.

Reuters; 20 Mar 2008 – A skin patch helped boost a bird flu vaccine so well that people appear to be protected by a single dose, researchers at biotechnolgy firm Iomai said on Thursday.

UPI; 20 Mar 2008 – Avian influenza is deeply entrenched in Indonesia despite an international containment effort, a U.N. report said Thursday,

CIDRAP; 20 Mar 2008 – A progress report released today says the US government has stockpiled enough prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccine for 13 million people, more than double the number listed in the previous report, issued last July.

BBC; 20 Mar 2008 – Bird flu continues to hold much of the globe in its lethal grip, with more than 60 countries affected.

Xinhua; 20 Mar 2008 – Indonesia dismissed fears of a virus re-assortment between avian and human seasonal influenza strains in a 2007 human death involving bird flu infection, the country's health ministry senior official said here.

Reuters; 20 Mar 2008 – Veterinary staff in safety gear began killing thousands of chickens on Thursday after expanding a culling operation to stop bird flu from spreading in an eastern Indian state.

Xinhua; 20 Mar 2008 – Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadhilah Supari has accused the United States of abusing Indonesian bird flu virus for commercial purposes, Antara news agency reported on Thursday.

AP; 19 Mar 2008 – Efforts to contain bird flu are failing in Indonesia, increasing the possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form, the leading U.N. veterinary health body warned.

CIDRAP; 19 Mar 2008 – Veterinary officials in Turkey have confirmed an H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in the western part of the country near the border with Greece, according to a report yesterday from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

BBC; 19 Mar 2008 – Indonesia needs more help to rein in the bird flu virus, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has said.

AFP; 19 Mar 2008 – The bird flu situation is "critical" in Indonesia, where the virus could mutate and cause a human pandemic, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday.

Reuters; 19 Mar 2008 – Authorities in eastern India on Wednesday started culling thousands of chickens, fearing the spread of bird flu in another district after a fresh outbreak in poultry this month.

UPI; 19 Mar 2008 – A Toronto hospital denied media reports Wednesday an elderly couple had been quarantined amid fears they had returned from Asia with avian flu.

CIDRAP; 19 Mar 2008 – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently held a tabletop exercise to assess how it could best work with the news media—including blogs and other online-only information sources—to get status updates and vital health information to the American people during an influenza pandemic.

Xinhua; 18 Mar 2008 – China has lifted a bird flu quarantine in southwestern province of Guizhou on Tuesday after no new cases were reported for 21 days.

Reuters; 18 Mar 2008 – The bird flu virus, widespread in Indonesia, could mutate and cause a human influenza pandemic, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday.

FAO; 18 Mar 2008 – The prevalence of avian influenza in Indonesia remains serious despite containment efforts undertaken by national authorities and the international community, FAO warned today. Indonesia is the country worst hit by avian influenza.

CIDRAP; 18 Mar 2008 – More than 10 years after the first appearance of avian influenza H5N1, it is time to acknowledge that the virus has become entrenched in many areas and to begin grappling with its social and economic effects, leading researchers said at a scientific meeting.

Xinhua; 18 Mar 2008 – Vietnam's Health Ministry has allowed the use of locally-produced bird flu vaccines on humans on a trial basis, local newspaper Young People reported on Tuesday.

Reuters; 18 Mar 2008 – Southern China may have been the source for much of the spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus, researchers suggested on Tuesday.

CIDRAP; 18 Mar 2008 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that H5N1 avian influenza levels in Indonesia's poultry are so high that conditions may be ripe for the type of viral mutation that could spark an influenza pandemic.

Reuters; 18 Mar 2008 – Vietnam, one of the countries hardest-hit by bird flu, will start a human vaccine trial this month, a military medical official said on Tuesday.

CIDRAP; 18 Mar 2008 – An 11-year-old boy in northern Vietnam died recently of H5N1 avian influenza amid an ongoing spate of bird outbreaks in the country, according to news services and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Reuters; 18 Mar 2008 – Major efforts have done little to control H5N1 avian influenza in Indonesia and the country needs more help in controlling the virus, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday.

WHO; 18 March 2008

WHO; 18 Mar 2008 – The Ministry of Health in Viet Nam has confirmed a new case of human infection of H5N1 avian influenza. The case has been confirmed by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE).

CIDRAP; 17 Mar 2008 – An Indonesian teenager has been brought forward as a case of simultaneous infection with seasonal and avian strains of influenza—a possibility that health planners have long warned could give rise to a pandemic flu strain.

Reuters; 17 Mar 2008 – Bird flu has killed a 11-year-old boy in northern Vietnam, the fifth casualty from the H5N1 virus this year, a health official said on Monday.

Xinhua; 17 Mar 2008 – Bird flu has recently stricken poultry in central Quang Nam province, lifting the total number of affected localities across Vietnam to 11, local newspaper Pioneer reported Monday.

CIDRAP; 17 Mar 2008 – In the early stages of an influenza pandemic, cases are spreading among migrant workers in Michigan. The state's health department has a supply of antiviral drugs from the federal stockpile and is using them to treat the sick, but, concerned about breaking federal rules, is withholding them from others exposed to the virus—thereby missing a chance to help contain it.

Xinhua; 16 Mar 2008 – An outbreak of bird flu in poultry has been reported in south China's Guangdong Province, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Sunday.

Xinhua; 15 Mar 2008 – Vietnam is focusing on maintaining close bird flu surveillance, ensuring sufficient provision of medicines and equipment, and accelerating vaccination among fowls, to prevent possible bird flu outbreaks among people and contain the disease among poultry.

Xinhua; 15 Mar 2008 – Despite an absence of new cases of human cases of bird flu for over 18 months, Thailand's public health authorities will soon launch prevention drills throughout the country, according to Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsup, according to local media Saturday.

UPI; 14 Mar 2008 – Chinese officials closed primary schools and day-care centers in Hong Kong as the city struggled with an outbreak of common influenza.

Xinhua; 14 Mar 2008; – Bird flu has recently stricken poultry in Vietnam's southern Soc Trang province and central QuangBinh province, raising the total number of affected localities nationwide to 10, local newspaper Pioneer reported Friday.

CIDRAP; 14 Mar 2008 – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unveiled a comprehensive pandemic influenza guidance document for states yesterday with the first of three live Web seminars (webinars) designed to assist state officials with planning activities.

Reuters; 13 Mar 2008 – Hong Kong children stayed home on Thursday after the government shut elementary schools for two weeks to contain a seasonal flu outbreak and experts investigated recent deaths suspected as being caused by the virus.

AP; 13 Mar 2008 – A top Hong Kong scientist said Thursday a flu outbreak that prompted authorities to keep more than 500,000 primary and kindergarten students home wasn't deadlier than past viruses.

Xinhua; 13 Mar 2008 – The demand of foods made from poultry meat has been decreased in restaurants across Indonesia due to fears of avian influenza, the country's hotel and restaurant association said here Thursday.

AFP; 13 Mar 2008 – Hong Kong health authorities tried Thursday to calm public fears over a flu outbreak which has left four children dead and led the city to close all primary schools and kindergartens.

Xinhua; 13 Mar 2008 – Hong Kong's top health official announced here Wednesday night that all primary schools, special schools and kindergartens in the city will close for two weeks starting from Thursday, due to seasonal flu outbreaks.

Xinhua; 13 Mar 2008 – Eight people from the same village in Indonesia's Lampung province were admitted to hospital allegedly for developing bird flu symptoms, local press said Thursday.

Radio Nederlands; 13 Mar 2008 – The authorities in Hong Kong have ordered all primary schools and kindergartens to close after a number of children died because of an outbreak of flu. It's the first time schools have been forced to close since the SARS epidemic five years ago.