The Indonesian Health Ministry confirms that a 14-year-old boy has tested positive for bird flu in Indonesia, the country’s first case of the virus in almost two months. The boy, from Tangerang in West Java, was hospitalised in Jakarta after he suffered from bird-flu-like symptoms on Jan_1.
US Federal officials have announced the launch of the first clinical trial of an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine made from a piece of the virus’s DNA rather than from the whole virus, an approach that may facilitate faster vaccine production.
The US HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced that the Department has awarded a $102.6 million, four-year contract to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for advanced development of their influenza antiviral drug, peramivir.
The first human trial of a DNA vaccine designed to prevent H5N1 avian influenza infection began on December 21, 2006, when the vaccine was administered to the first volunteer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. Scientists from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the NIH Institutes, designed the vaccine. The vaccine does not contain any infectious material from the influenza virus.
Cornell researchers studied a virus related to the avian influenza virus to see whether a hypothetical mutated form of H5N1 could infect people through drinking and wastewater systems.
Drawing upon a massive database established with funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists have completed the most comprehensive analysis to date of published influenza A virus epitopes–the critical sites on the virus that are recognized by the immune system.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology announced today the results of a first of its kind study analyzing all published data worldwide on influenza A virus antibody and T cell epitopes. Antibody and T cell epitopes are small sites on a virus that are the targets of the immune response, and they are critical for developing therapies and vaccines to combat infectious disease.
Vietnam health officials has reported first suspected cases of human bird flu in this year. Four members of a family have been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu.
A 26-year-old Egyptian man died of bird flu on Wednesday, the third member of his extended family to die of the virus, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report highlighted.
Egyptian health ministry reported that a 15-year-old Egyptian girl has died of bird flu. Nine people in Egypt have died from the H5N1 strain of avian flu since the virus first appeared in the country’s poultry in February.