Japanese officials confirmed that bird flu caused the deaths of more than two-thousand chickens at a farm 900 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. The officials have not determined whether this particular strain of bird flu is the feared H5N1 or another less deadly form.
The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health, the Honourable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue, and Parliamentary Secretary David Anderson (representing the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board) announced that Canada`s New Government will invest in an ambitious new vaccine research and development facility at the University of Saskatchewan which will significantly enhance Canada’s capacity to develop vaccines for both humans and animals.
The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed an additional two cases of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a refrigerated form of FluMist, the nasal-spray influenza vaccine, which should be more convenient for providers than the current formulation, MedImmune Inc. announced.
Two Indonesians have been hospitalized in less than a week with H5N1 avian influenza infections, the country?s first in more than a month, according to news services. Indonesia?s health ministry told Bloomberg News that a 14-year-old boy who tested positive for the H5N1 virus was being treated at Persahabatan Hospital in Jakarta after showing flulike symptoms on Jan_1.
Hong Kong government officials recently announced that a wild bird found dead near a busy shopping district on Dec_31 tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza.
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 new director-general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, warns the threat of an influenza pandemic has not receded. She urges countries around the world to prepare for a pandemic that has the potential to kill millions.
Widespread use of the antiviral Tamiflu to fight pandemic avian flu in humans could actually lead to the development of what public health officials hope to avoid??drug-resistant strains of the virus in wild birds. British researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford have released findings in the January 2007 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) that demonstrate how Tamiflu?s persistence in wastewater and river water could affect the waterfowl that drink from those water sources.