Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said “The theme of this year’s World Health Day, international health security, is apt given the global health landscape today. In a highly interconnected world, diseases spread fast and recognize no boundaries.”
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) announced final Phase I/II data for its adjuvant-free investigational pandemic H5N1 influenza vaccine and plans to initiate a Phase III clinical trial of the candidate vaccine in Europe to confirm the study results.
The Ministry of Health in China has reported a new fatal case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case has been confirmed by the national laboratory.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population has announced two new human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection.
WHO welcomes the news from the Minister of Health of Indonesia, who announced at a joint news conference that the country would resume sharing of H5N1 avian influenza virus samples ?immediately?.
After a two-day meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, among officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and 18 nations that have had animal and human outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, the government of Indonesia has agreed to resume sharing H5N1 virus samples for the first time since January.
The World Health Organization (WHO) deserves continued support and commendation for its leadership in guiding the global effort to prepare for and respond to a potential human influenza pandemic.
A review to be published shortly in the British Ornithologists’ Union’s journal, Ibis, critically examines the arguments concerning the role of migratory birds in the global dispersal of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1.
Parents might one day give their children a weekly treatment with a nasal spray of virus enzymes to prevent them from getting a severe middle ear infection, based on results of a study done in mice by investigators from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The Rockefeller University, in New York.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Hawaii will use bioinformatics, grid computing and networking infrastructure, as well as collaborative ties to Asian institutions to learn more about avian flu, in hopes of helping to head off a much-feared pandemic in the region of the world where the disease has already cost human lives.