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Exposure to the H1N1 pandemic flu virus could protect people from H5N1 bird flu, the Emerging Health Threats Forum has reported. Research suggests that previous infection with the pandemic influenza virus strain could provide some immunity against the H5N1 virus. Experts speculate that this could protect against severe illness from bird flu. The H5N1 strain, kept under watch for its pandemic potential, has so far proved lethal in 60% of people infected with it. Kristien Van Reeth and colleagues at Ghent University infected pigs with a closely related “predecessor” to the current pandemic strain of the flu virus. Four weeks...

World health experts have tossed out death estimates from a potential bird flu pandemic ranging from 2 million and 150 million. While the estimates vary wildly, observers say the wide range may not be entirely surprising. After all,there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the bird flu, including what the virus even will look like if and when it becomes capable of spreading directly between humans. "We can't predict what a virus we've never seen will do," Marc Lipsitch, epidemiology professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the ABC News Internet streaming channel ABC News Now. Current human...

If birds hosting flu virus are exposed to the waterborne pollutant, they might develop drug-resistant strains, chemists worry The premier flu-fighting drug is contaminating rivers downstream of sewage-treatment facilities, researchers in Japan confirm. The source: urinary excretion by people taking oseltamivir phosphate, best known as Tamiflu. Concerns are now building that birds, which are natural influenza carriers, are being exposed to waterborne residues of Tamiflu’s active form and might develop and spread drug-resistant strains of seasonal and avian flu. For their new study, Gopal Ghosh and his colleagues at Kyoto University sampled water discharged from three local sewage treatment plants...

Chile detected the H1N1 swine flu virus in turkeys, authorities said, the first time the virus has been found outside humans and pigs, but said there was no indication the disease had spread to other parts of Chile. The country's farming and livestock agency SAG said yesterday the flu outbreak had been controlled at the two farms 120 km west of the capital Santiago and notified the World Organization for Animal Health. "We call on the public to consume turkey products with confidence," a SAG statement said. It added that laboratory results ruled out the presence of H5N1 or bird...

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Two existing drugs used to treat osteoporosis may be effective in killing influenza viruses, including the new H1N1 swine flu and the H5N1 bird flu viruses, researchers in Hong Kong have found. The two drugs are pamidronate and zoledronate, which are marketed by Novartis AG under the brand names Aredia and Reclast, respectively. In their experiment, the researchers exposed human cells that had been infected with the influenza viruses to the two drugs. They observed that the drugs triggered extra production of a type of white blood cell called yd-T cells, which went on to kill...

Enlarge ImageTrouble spots. In mice infected with the H5N1 virus, deposits of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (arrows) in dopamine neurons may be a sign of neurodegeneration. Credit: H. Jang et al., PNAS Early Edition (2009) Decades after the 1918 influenza pandemic, epidemiologists noted an uptick in the number of people with diminished mobility and other neurological symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson's disease. But despite this and other hints, the idea that viruses can trigger neurodegenerative disease has remained controversial. Now researchers report new evidence for such a link: Mice infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus lose the same dopamine-releasing neurons that...

Two Egyptian boys have contracted the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the total number of cases in the most populous Arab country to 74, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday. Egypt, hit harder by bird flu than any other country outside Asia, has seen a surge in cases in recent weeks with 14 new human infections and four deaths reported since April 1 -- more than the country saw in all of 2008. The children -- a 4-year-old boy from Daqahlia in the Nile Delta and a 3-year-old boy from Sohag in the south -- were admitted...

Human noses too cold for bird flu Bird flu may not have become the threat to humans that some predicted because our noses are too cold for the virus to thrive, UK researchers say. An Imperial College London recreation of the nose's environment found that at 32 degrees Celsius, avian flu viruses lose function and cannot spread. It is likely that the viruses have adapted to suit the warmer 40 degree environments in the guts of birds. A mutation would be needed before bird flu became a human problem, they said. Published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, the study also...

Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - Some 3,000 chickens were culled after bird flu was detected at a poultry farm in the country's Southeastern Cox's Bazar district town on Sunday night. "On Sunday officials from the center informed us that bird flu virus was found in the samples," District Livestock Officer Dr Zaker Ullah was quoted by The Daily Star, a local newspaper, as saying. He also said they collected samples from the poultry farm on Saturday and sent them for testing to the Regional Livestock Research Centre in Feni. Poultry birds at other farms in the area are being examined to...

The bird flu news isn't encouraging, the head of the CDC said today. The comments by CDC Director Julie M. Gerberding, MD, MPH, came at the opening of the 2006 National Influenza Vaccine Summit meeting of public health officials and vaccine manufacturers. Preparation for a flu pandemic is only a small part of the meeting. But in her opening remarks, Gerberding stressed how seriously the CDC is taking the threat of a bird flu pandemic. "This is not media hype. This is a real situation," Gerberding said. "And at CDC we are very focused on the possibility of pandemic with...

A three-year-old boy in Vietnam has tested positive for potentially deadly bird flu, doctors said Thursday. The patient from the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap was admitted to Ho Chi Minh City's Tropical Diseases Institute Monday and on Wednesday a test came back positive for the virus's H5N1 strain, said Nguyen Van Chau, director of the city's health care department. "The situation of the boy is getting worse," Chau said. Another doctor, from the municipal Pasteur Institute, said the boy's sample will be tested again to confirm the infection. Communist Vietnam has the world's second-highest bird flu death toll...

Baxter company admitted a mistake occurred in Austria and that it sent infected vaccines to the Czech Republic.

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. “At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark. “But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.” The...

A leading virologist said on Thursday that ducks are to blame for the resurgence of the H5N1 bird flu virus in China and Vietnam, and called for wider surveillance and vaccination of ducks to stop the problem. The virus has infected at least 14 people in both countries since the start of this year, killing seven of them. Experts said what was mystifying about the latest round of outbreaks was the absence of the disease in poultry in China despite the human infections. H5N1 is passed primarily from animal to human. Robert Webster, a leading H5N1 expert, told a medical...

excerpt "TOKYO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Panasonic says families of overseas workers in Africa and other regions are being ordered home to Japan in anticipation of a severe flu outbreak. Workers will remain in their posts while their families return home by September from Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Russia, South America and Asia, excluding Singapore, said Panasonic spokesman Akira Kadota...."

VANCOUVER/ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — The Fraser Valley has been hit by what disease-control experts suspect is the third outbreak of avian flu to affect the prime agricultural area's numerous poultry flocks in less than five years. After samples taken from distressed turkeys at a 50,000-bird operation near Abbotsford were found to contain signs of the H5 virus, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency immediately slapped a quarantine on the farm and about two dozen others within a three-kilometre radius. CFIA officials were waiting for the initial diagnosis to be confirmed by its national testing laboratory in Winnipeg before taking further action.

China warns of "grim" fight against deadly bird flu Tue Jan 20, 7:30 pm ET BEIJING (Reuters) – China faces a "grim" situation in preventing and controlling human cases of bird flu, the health minister said, after announcing four human infections in the last two weeks and three deaths. Health Minister Chen Zhu called for hospitals to spare more resources in diagnosing and treating bird flu and more cooperation between agriculture authorities and his ministry, Xinhua news agency said. A Chinese newspaper reported that the mother of a toddler diagnosed with bird flu had died of severe pneumonia earlier this...

A 16-year-old man, named only as Wu, became the fourth reported victim in two weeks. The Health ministry said he had fallen ill in Guizhou on January 8 and was then transferred to a hospital in the neighbouring province of Hunan. He has since died. Two of the other victims, a 27-year-old woman in Shandong province and a 19-year-old woman in Beijing, also died. The third, a two-year-old girl in Shanxi province, is critically ill. Her mother, meanwhile, has died from kidney failure but has not been confirmed with the H5N1 virus. There is a growing sense of panic ahead...

Nepal government is taking all the possible steps to save other regions of Nepal from falling prey to deadly bird flu. Mechinagar has been declared emergency region where birds were found affected with deadly H5N1 virus. Districts close to the affected areas, including Morang and Chitawan have been issued notices regarding risk of spread of bird flu. Prabhakar Pathak, chief of the department of livestock services in Kathmandu informed that about 13,000 poultry would be culled in five days to control the virus within a 3 km radius of the town, and the government would pay up to $5 for...

A Chinese woman has died from bird flu in the eastern Shandong province, state media has said. It says Ms Zhang, aged 27, died at the weekend after becoming infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. It is the second reported death from bird flu in China this year. Two weeks ago, a 19-year-old woman died in Beijing after handling ducks. The latest death was announced the day after the infection of a two-year old with bird flu in Hunan was reported. The three new cases are the first to be reported in China in almost a year. The...

HONG KONG - A 2-MONTH-OLD Hong Kong-born infant who lives in China has contracted a mild strain of bird flu, a health official said on Tuesday. The baby girl, who contracted the H9 strain of avian influenza, is currently isolated at a local hospital and is in stable condition, Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection, told a news conference. The baby lives with her family in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen but recently visited a hospital in Hong Kong after showing symptoms, Mr Tsang said. He said health officials in the southern Chinese Guangdong province...

Terrorists could strike Britain by infecting the country with bird flu or Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a leading group of security experts has warned. A commission led by Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader,identified 27 countries where terror organisations could become a threat to the UK. The report by the Institute of Public Policy Research warns that one of the biggest emerging threats comes from terrorists turning to biological warfare. The assessment comes from the IPPR's Commission on National Security for the 21st century which is chaired by Lord Ashdown and Lord Robertson, the former Secretary General of...

Wild birds carry avian flu viruses to U.S.: report Tue Oct 28, 6:08 pm ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Migrating waterfowl may be carrying avian influenza viruses from Asia to the Americas, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday. They found genetic evidence that some non-dangerous influenza viruses infecting northern pintail ducks in Alaska are genetically more closely related to Asian strains of bird flu than to North American strains. "Although some previous research has led to speculation that intercontinental transfer of avian influenza viruses from Asia to North America via wild birds is rare, this study challenges that," said Chris Franson,...

Researchers at Rutgers University and The University of Texas at Austin have reported a discovery that could help scientists develop drugs to fight the much-feared bird flu and other virulent strains of influenza. The researchers have determined the three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza A virus protein that binds to one of its human protein targets, thereby suppressing a person's natural defenses to the infection and paving the way for the virus to replicate efficiently. This so-called NS1 virus protein is shared by all influenza A viruses isolated from humans - including avian influenza, or bird flu, and...

Scientists have detected for the first time in Nigeria a new strain of the virus that causes avian influenza -- also known as bird flu -- a United Nations agency announced on Tuesday. The find comes in the wake of Nigeria recently reporting two new highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in the states of Katsina and Kano, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. "The detection of a new avian influenza virus strain in Africa raises serious concerns as it remains unknown how this strain has been introduced to the continent," said Scott Newsman, an international wildlife coordinator...

Scientists have discovered how bird flu adapts in patients, offering a new way to monitor the disease and prevent a pandemic, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of General Virology. Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread through at least 45 countries in 3 continents. Despite its ability to spread, it cannot be transmitted efficiently from human to human. This indicates it is not fully adapted to its new host species, the human. However, this new research reveals mutations in the virus that may result in a pandemic. "The mutations needed for the emergence...

Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland By Matthew Day in Warsaw Last Updated: 11:17PM BST 02/07/2008 Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus. The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus. Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought...

US health official says flu threat high A top U.S. health official says the threat of a flu pandemic remains high. And while the world has made great strides to prepare, it's not enough. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Julie Gerberding says bird flu fatigue among countries and the public is a growing concern. Scientists have identified the H5N1 bird flu virus as a potential candidate that could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. "People have very short attention spans and when something is in the news for a while, it becomes old...

<p>TSN 17.11, +0.13, +0.8%) dropped 8% to close at $16.98 Tuesday following a report that 15,000 chickens in a northwest Arkansas plant had tested positive for a mild strain of avian influenza.</p> <p>U.S. Dept. of Agriculture spokeswoman Angie Harless said the National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the presence Sunday of avian influenza antibodies in Tyson chickens, indicating that they had a mild strain of avian flu.</p>

JAKARTA (AFP) — The future of a major US Navy research laboratory in Indonesia is in doubt amid allegations, dismissed as "crazy" by US diplomats, of espionage and secret experiments. Negotiations between Washington and Jakarta over the renewal of the operating contract of US Naval Medical Research Unit-2, or Namru-2, have stalled over a range of issues including diplomatic immunity for its US staff. Established in Indonesia in 1970 and charged with researching infectious diseases of military importance, the facility employs 19 Americans and more than 100 Indonesians and is based in Indonesian health ministry grounds. Its operations have attracted...

JAKARTA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Indonesian House of Representatives have moved to establish a special task force to investigate U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 (Namru-2), local press said Tuesday. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the second largest faction in the House, proposed the fact-finding team because of allegations the U.S. laboratory is engaging in espionage and the lack of apparent benefits to Indonesia from their research. "We propose the House form a task force to investigate the lab to reassure the public that it isn't spying on us and that it really benefits...

Bird flu: Indonesia's trial run By Lucy Williamson April 29, 2008 BBC News, Bali In the backstreets of a Bali village, all hell has broken loose. The Balinese rural calm has been invaded by men with megaphones and masks, there are sirens wailing down the main street, and at the centre of it all, Putu Arini sits quietly on the porch of her house, waiting for the police. Parts of Bali have looked like the set of a germ-warfare film A few hours ago, her husband was taken to the local health clinic, with bird flu-like symptoms, and now investigators...

Soldier may have first human case of bird flu here April 22, 2008 A soldier who helped slaughter poultry infected with avian influenza might have the first human case of the disease in Korea, the Health Ministry said yesterday. “The soldier slaughtered poultry on Friday and Saturday, and his symptoms meet the criteria of a suspected avian influenza patient under the World Health Organization manual,” the ministry said in a release. “His condition, however, is close to that of a bacterial pneumonia patient, so we are closely monitoring him.” The ministry quoted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as...

Bird flu in one way or another is wiping out poultry in South Korea Published: Monday, 21-Apr-2008 Disease/Infection News Following the announcement by officials in South Korea of another bird flu outbreak, 5.3 million birds are expected to be culled to control the spread of the deadly virus. This latest outbreak in South Korea is the 17th case of bird flu in three weeks and is the country's fastest and biggest ever outbreak of avian influenza. Officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries say that the case which tested positive for the H5N1 virus, appeared on a...

Chinese son likely gave bird flu to father: report By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Mon Apr 7, 6:34 PM ET 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. Chinese officials had already said they believed the younger man infected his 52-year-old father, who survived, but genetic sequencing and other checks confirmed this was likely, the researchers said. "In this family cluster of confirmed cases of infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus...

16:36' 24/03/2008 (GMT+7) After four years of research, scientists at the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology have announced they will test type A/H5N1 vaccine on humans this April and the vaccine will be available on the market in 2009. Last stage of H5N1 vaccine There was good news for scientists at the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology: the Ministry of Health agreed to let them test H5N1 vaccine on humans. The over-four year process of researching H5N1 virus carried out by the scientists is at last in the final stage. In early March 2008, a group of scientists...

17:46' 04/04/2008 (GMT+7) Scientists inject the vaccine in monkeys on Reu Island, Quang Ninh province in 2004. Vaccine and Biomedical Product Company 1 on April 3 injected a second dose of H5N1 vaccine in ten volunteers. Vietnam to produce H5N1 vaccine in 2009This test aims to verify the safety of H5N1 vaccine in humans. After the injection, all volunteers were in normal condition. These people will be monitored for seven days more to ensure the safety of the vaccine. On March 6, these people took the first dose of type A/H5N1 vaccine and no abnormal symptoms were recorded before they...

Authorities testing for deadly strain as new bird flu outbreak hits South Korea AP - Saturday, April 5 SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea reported another bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm Saturday, days after confirming the return of the deadly H5N1 virus following a yearlong absence. ADVERTISEMENT Ducks at the farm tested positive for a general bird flu virus, but more tests are needed to determine if it is the specific strain that has caused worldwide concern, said Kim Ung-sang, an Agriculture Ministry official said. Results are expected by Monday. Several strains of bird flu typically circulate in...

(BEIJING) -- 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. The firm, Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd. will produce vaccines to defend humans against the H5N1 virus and its epidemic variety, making China the world's second country with the technology and industrial capacity to produce human bird flu vaccine. According to Yin Weidong, general manager of the firm, Sinovac has the ability to produce new vaccines even if the virus mutates in humans. China started clinical research and...

Ducks, people and rice paddies are the primary forces driving outbreaks of avian influenza in Thailand and Vietnam, and the number of chickens is less pivotal, scientists said on Wednesday. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization experts and others looked at three waves of H5N1 bird flu in Thailand and Vietnam in 2004 and 2005. The virus has killed 236 people in 12 countries since 2003. They used computer modeling to study how various factors were involved in the spread of the virus, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and local geography. Even though...

Associated Press Chinese officials have confirmed that bird flu was to blame for killing chickens in poultry markets in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, Hong Kong's health bureau Sunday. China's Ministry of Agriculture notified the administration that the birds tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, marking the country's fifth outbreak among poultry this year, Hong Kong's Food and Health Bureau said in a statement. The Ministry of Agriculture also said on its Web site that last week's outbreak in Guangzhou killed 114 birds and resulted in the slaughter of 518 others. But it has been contained, the...

A Hong Kong primary school was closed Tuesday after a seven-year-old pupil died in hospital and 38 other students fell sick with flu. Law Ho-ming was admitted to hospital with fever and flu symptoms and discharged, only to return two days later on Saturday. He fell into a coma and died Tuesday morning. Thirty-eight fellow pupils at the Ho Yat Tung Primary School have fallen ill with flu and the school was Tuesday afternoon told by the government to close a week early for its Easter holiday because of the outbreak. Law was readmitted to hospital on Saturday just 48...

HANOI, VIETNAM: A man has died of bird flu in Vietnam's second human death from the virus in a week, health officials said Friday (15 Feb), blaming poultry consumption during the Lunar New Year holiday and recent cold spells for the spread of the illness. The 27-year-old man died Thursday (14 Feb) night in a Hanoi hospital. He became ill earlier this week after eating infected chicken at his home in Ninh Binh province, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Hanoi, said Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department. Test results showed he was...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java has died from bird flu, taking the country's death toll from the virus to 104, the health ministry said on Saturday. The ministry said on its Web site the boy had fallen sick on February 3 with fever symptoms and respiratory problems after five chickens belonging to him and a neighbor died. There has been a sudden spike in bird flu cases in Indonesia since the start of the year. Some experts say the flare-up is caused by factors such as damp weather and poor sanitation during the rainy season....

PHILADELPHIA - Monday mornings are hard enough. Imagine finding 50 chickens running loose in your high school. Workers arriving about 5:30 a.m. to open Northeast High School in Philadelphia found dozens of hens and roosters wandering around the hallways. The birds were apparently brought to the school sometime over the weekend, said school district spokesman Fernando Gallard. "We don't know where the chickens came from or who they belong to," Gallard said. "I'm pretty sure there is a very upset poultry farmer somewhere who wants them back." The floors were covered with droppings and chicken feed. Most of the school's...

Bird flu may be spread indirectly, WHO says By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Thu Jan 17, 8:22 AM ET The H5N1 bird flu virus may sometimes stick to surfaces or get kicked up in fertilizer dust to infect people, according to a World Health Organization report published on Wednesday. The WHO team reviewed all known human cases of avian influenza, which has infected 350 people in 14 countries and killed 217 of them since 2003, and found that 25 percent of cases have no explanation. Most are passed directly from bird to people, they noted in their report,...

Indonesia bird flu death toll hits 100 Mon Jan 28, 8:00 AM ET A 23-year-old Indonesian woman from East Jakarta has died from bird flu, taking the country's death toll to 100, according to a report from Indonesia's bird flu information centre on Monday. The woman died on Sunday and two separate laboratory tests confirmed she contracted H5N1, the report said. Earlier on Monday, a 9-year-old Indonesian boy who had tested positive for bird flu died, the health ministry said in a statement. The boy from the outskirts of Jakarta died at the Sulianto Saroso hospital on Sunday after being...

MARGRAM (BIRBHUM): Hundreds of goats have died of an unknown disease over the past four days in Birbhum's Rampurhat block II. Some experts warned that if the H5N1 virus — which causes bird flu — has jumped from birds to mammals, it could be the turn of humans next. TOI met jittery villagers in Dakhalbati, one of the affected villages in Birbhum's Margram. Abdul Mohid, a farmer, said his goat was shivering and sneezing and saliva was oozing from its mouth. Mohid had called in a local vet, who could only say the animal was suffering from high fever but...

The bird flu epidemic in the Indian state of West Bengal has inched closer to the capital, Calcutta, with an outbreak reported close to the city. Tests on dead birds from Balagarh, less than a two-hour drive from Calcutta, have tested positive for the disease. ... Experts in Bangladesh have warned that the outbreak of the virus is far worse than the government is reporting. "Bird flu is now everywhere. Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms," leading Bangladeshi poultry expert MM Khan has said. "Things are now very serious and public health is [in] danger," he...

Officials in the Indian state of West Bengal say that the bird flu epidemic has spread to two more of the state's 19 districts, taking the total to nine. They say that the spread of the H5N1 virus means that even more chicken and duck will have to be killed than was originally estimated. On Monday officials said that around 2m birds would need to be culled - a figure that will now rise. Health experts have warned that the outbreak could get out of control.