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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...