H5N1 News and Research

Latest H5N1 News and Research

Bird flu in Indonesia - source still a mystery

Indonesia's search for the source of the bird flu virus that killed three people near its densely populated capital, Jakarta, has ended in failure, the health minister said this week.

11 Aug 2005

Tests of bird flu vaccine on humans show good results

Experts have been concerned that the bird flu strain, currently prevalent in Asia, could engender a worldwide pandemic, but apparently human tests of an experimental vaccine show it is effective at stimulating the immune system to fight the virus.

7 Aug 2005

Flu medication VIRA 38 inhibits SARS virus

PRB Pharmaceuticals and Lee's Pharmaceuticals have announced that a recent study by Taiwan researchers from the National Health Research Institutes demonstrates TF2b and TF3, two components of v38 AMF-1, inhibit the 3C-like protease encoded by SARS-CoV. v38 AMF-1, a fraction of the flu medication VIRA 38, is best known for its ability to inhibit bird flu virus (H5N1) infections.

4 Aug 2005

Scientists have a plan to prevent bird flu pandemic

According to scientists the H5N1 strain of bird flu circulating in Asia which could mutate into a lethal strain and cause a pandemic, could be contained.

4 Aug 2005

Bird flu could spread to Europe on wings of Asian wild geese

Migratory wild birds from China, which were found to have contracted bird flu from poultry, could potentially spread the disease to Europe, as well as Australia, Chinese scientists report.

26 Jul 2005

Brits stockpiling bird flu vaccine

A stockpile of 2 million doses of vaccine to fight the H5N1 strain of Asian bird flu will be accumulated by the British government.

21 Jul 2005

For influenza experts, the question is not whether the world is going to have a new flu pandemic, but when

This isn't easy to communicate to the public. Bird flu and the potential for a human flu pandemic have been making headlines in recent weeks, but the subject presents more uncertainties than certainties.

19 Jul 2005

U.S. stockpile of anti-flu drugs is "totally inadequate"

The United States does not have nearly enough antiviral drugs on hand to fight a coming influenza pandemic, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

19 Jul 2005

'Big Gun' government official needed to oversee U.S. animal disease programs

A National Academy of Sciences panel has said this week that one high ranking government official may be the best way to consolidate U.S. animal disease oversights in order to protect consumers from mad cow disease, bird flu and other serious animal ailments that can jump species.

19 Jul 2005

Ducks possibly the culprit in spreading bird flu

An international team, which included experts from China, Indonesia, Thailand, the US and Vietnam, say that domestic ducks possibly pose a major threat of spreading avian flu to animals and humans, as not only do they carry the virus with few visible signs, the virus is able to mutate in them, which means they could trigger a human pandemic.

19 Jul 2005

Tamiflu may treat avian flu virus

Experiments in mice show that an antiviral drug currently used against annual influenza strains also can suppress the deadly influenza virus that has spread from birds to humans, killing dozens of people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand since early 2004.

18 Jul 2005

Bird flu could be carried out of Asia by migrating geese

Scientists are warning that migrating geese and other birds at a wildlife refuge in China, means the birds could carry the devastating virus out of Asia and spread the avian flu virus further afield.

7 Jul 2005

Plan designed to reduce the risk of the H5N1 avian influenza

International animal and human health experts today unveiled a multi-point plan designed to reduce the risk of the H5N1 avian influenza virus spreading from poultry to humans, and appealed to the international community to come forward with funds to make it work and help stave off the risk of an influenza pandemic.

6 Jul 2005

Threat from Avian Influenza remains

At the request of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of international experts to Viet Nam last week to assess laboratory and epidemiological data on recent cases and determine whether the present level of pandemic alert should be increased.

30 Jun 2005

Bird flu pandemic no longer imminent

In the best news yet in the bird flu scenario, international scientists have now downgraded the risk of an imminent pandemic, saying the indications are that the virus has not mutated.

30 Jun 2005

Another death takes Vietnam's bird flu toll to 39

The death of a 73-year-old Vietnamese from bird flu, has taken the country's death toll from the epidemic to 39.

30 Jun 2005

Half a million in U.S. could die in flu pandemic

A report from the Trust for America's Health, says the United States only has 965,256 staffed hospital beds, and in the event of a pandemic, half a million Americans could die and more than 2 million could end up in the hospital with serious complications.

27 Jun 2005

Team of experts sent to Vietnam to study bird flu risk

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a team of international experts to Vietnam to study whether the H5N1 bird flu virus could be evolving into a form that might trigger a human pandemic.

26 Jun 2005

Expert says the world is not ready for the next pandemic

Michael T. Osterholm is Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Associate Director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Food Protection and Defense, and Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.

21 Jun 2005