Bird Flu

Last year, in an effort to understand the biology of H5N1, two independent research groups successfully engineered the lethal avian flu virus to be transmissible between mammals, and perhaps among humans. At the end of January, the research ...  

Assuming the avian virus could spread easily among people, just how deadly would an H5N1 pandemic be for humans? Flu scientists tend to shy away from that question, suggesting that it is not possible to predict how lethal the virus would still ...  

LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) - When 22 bird flu experts meet at the World Health Organization this week, they will be tasked with deciding just how far scientists should go in creating lethal mutant viruses in the name of research. The hurriedly assembled meeting is designed to try to settle an unprecedented row over a call to ban publication of two scientific studies which detail how to mutate H5N1 ...  

A simple math problem lies at the heart of a heated debate over whether scientists should be allowed to publish provocative research into the transmissibility of H5N1 flu. Assuming the avian virus could spread easily among people, just how deadly would an ...  

HA NOI, Feb. 15 — At least four provinces were reported to be infected with bird flu on Tuesday, bringing the total affected localities nationwide to 10 since earlier this year. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the lethal ...  

Keri Collins Lewis, MSU Ag Communications A Mississippi State University researcher has uncovered the first molecular evidence linking live poultry markets in China to human H5N1 avian influenza. read more  

(CBS) Should scientists be allowed to create a deadly bird flu virus to study how it spreads? That difficult question lies at the heart of a debate that weighs the risks and benefits of avian influenza research. The World Health Organization has ...  

The Health Ministry says it has taken necessary measures to anticipate a possible bird flu outbreak, such as by ensuring the availability of medical workers, community health centers, hospitals and ...  

Two recent studies concerning the discovery of mutated H5N1 virus strains ... The papers in question, from the lab of Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at UW-Madison-submitted to "Science" and "Nature ...  

Scientists met behind closed doors in Geneva Thursday to discuss whether controversial research on a mutant form of bird flu capable of being spread among humans can be made public. The two-day gathering at the World Health Organization (WHO) was called to ...  

US - A Mississippi State University researcher has uncovered the first molecular evidence linking live poultry markets in China to human H5N1 avian influenza.  

The hurriedly-assembled meeting is designed to try and settle an unprecedented row over a call to ban publication of two scientific studies which detail how to mutate H5N1 bird flu viruses into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic.  

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Leslie Gerwin, associate director of law and public affairs at Princeton University, reflects on the recent controversy over whether to research and publish data about potentially dangerous strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus, writing, "I am disturbed that so much coverage of this dispute -- so deserving of sober consideration -- is fixated on fear mongering."  

Soc Trang Province's Health Department has reported that the new-born baby of the woman who died of bird flu last month tested negative for the Avian Influenza Virus H5N1. Meanwhile, Director of central Thanh Hoa Province's Department of Animal Health has ...  

STARKVILLE — A Mississippi State University researcher has uncovered the first molecular evidence linking live poultry markets in China to human H5N1 avian influenza. Henry Wan, an assistant professor in systems biology at MSU’s College of ...  

Members of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity explain its recommendations on the communication of experimental work on H5N1 influenza. Recently, several scientific research teams have achieved some success in modifying influenza A/H5N1 ...  

Feb 9, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – The fatality rate for officially confirmed human cases of H5N1 avian influenza infection is a stunningly high 59% (345 deaths in 584 cases). But the current controversy over publishing data about transmissible H5N1 ...  

A Vietnamese official on Thursday confirmed the country's second human death from bird flu in less than a month, after it went nearly two years with no reported fatalities. Test results confirm that a 26-year-old woman died of the disease Jan. 28 after ...  

KATHMANDU: Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives today confirmed bird flu in crows of Kathmandu valley during a meeting with Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Means. Earlier the Department of Livestock Services that falls under ...  

Scientists working with bird flu recently called a 60-day halt on some controversial experiments. The unusual move has been compared to a famous moratorium on genetic engineering in the 1970s. Key scientists involved in that pause on genetic research disagree on whether today's furor over bird flu is history repeating itself.  

Avian influenza was confirmed in a sample last week by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi ... to date all remain well. The WHO reports this case is the 121st person in Viet Nam to become infected with the H5N1 virus. To date, 61 of these cases have died ...  

India today confirmed four recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu that killed more than 1,100 crows, according to a report filed with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The first and by far the largest was in Jharkhand state from ...  

Asian bans on Australian poultry imports in the wake of a bird flu outbreak on two Victorian farms are an overreaction, the chicken meat industry says. The Australian Chicken Meat Federation says Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong have placed ...  

Researchers are calling for research into the links between weather variations, bird migration and influenza pandemics. Some believe that weather patterns could have an influence on the spread of epidemics like that of the H1N1 influenza virus, or swine ...  

The World Health Organization said Friday it will meet next week to determine whether scientists can publish research on a bird flu virus that may be easily passed among humans. The two-day discussion will relate to research on a mutation of the H5N1 virus ...  

SHILLONG: Clinical tests on dead pigeons in this hill town have shown that the mysterious bird deaths were not due to avian flu. A veterinary department official said that the authorities have given the "all-clear signal" and there is no reason ...  

Caption: Electron micrograph of H5N1 virus (gold) Image: CDC/Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki NEW YORK Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it. [More]  

Avian influenza resurfaced in Odisha with the detection of H5N1 virus in a bird at a farm of Central Poultry Development Organisation (CPDO) here. The bird flu virus has been detected in the state capital after culling took place at Keranga in Khurda ...  

ITAHARI: Samples of dead chicken collected from a farm at the Itahari-based PK Poultry tested positive for bird flu in course of tests at the Kathmandu-based central laboratory. A government team under Dr Bolaraj Acharya had not bothered to ...  

The ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Health have warned of a possible large-scale outbreak of bird flu in the near future. Viet Nam News reporters Thu Hien and Thanh Hai talked to experts about the main causes of the disease's resurgence ...  

An accidental or deliberate release of the virus would be detected in the same way. That’s how the swine flu, or H1N1 pandemic, was detected two years ago. Pandemics are hard to miss. Q. How did you feel when you heard about these results?  

Yoshihiro Kawaoka explains that research on transmissible avian flu viruses needs to continue if pandemics are to be prevented. Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses first proved lethal in humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. Since 2003, 578 confirmed ...  

"Four of the swans were tested positive of H1 avian flu," a spokesman for the state's fisheries and wildlife department said. "It's a low pathogenic form. This form of avian flu is not harmful for humans." The strain is commonly carried by birds ...  

A note to bird flu virologists: Not all of you have been approaching of this whole engineered flu pandemic controversy quite optimally.  It’s understandable that you weren’t prepared for all the attention.  After all, you were only ...  

(CBS) Should scientists be allowed to create a deadly influenza virus for the sake of research? That difficult question lies at the heart of a debate that must come to a close this week. The World Health Organization called for a Feb. 17-18 ...  

By Molly Peterson Fake Rolex watches for sale. Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — An airborne strain of avian flu engineered in Wisconsin isn't lethal and can be blocked with existing medicines, the study's lead scientist said. While the ...  

Feb 8, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – International experts say that, while experiments on H5N1 avian flu transmission in mammals are important, publishing full details of such "dual-use" studies likely will not speed up the vaccine response in a ...  

Bird flu has spread further in nine Vietnamese localities, with new infected flocks reported in Hai Phong and four more provinces, an agricultural official said. Van Dang Ky, head of the Epidemic Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural ...  

CAIRO, 26 January 2012 (IRIN) - A nationwide campaign to stop the spread of H5N1 avian influenza in Egypt is to be launched by the government in a few weeks, say officials, but details are still sketchy. The new plan, which will involve coordination ...  

On 2 February, scientists and public health officials squared off in a panel discussion at the New York Academy of Sciences. Debate raged around the fate of two papers which describe a mutant strain of the avian influenza virus H5N1. The virus is capable of mammal-to-mammal transmission, which has raised concern that it might be transferable to humans. Several panelists sat down with Nature News to discuss their positions prior to the panel...  

The prevailing notion is that the highly virulent influenza strains can turn pandemic only through airborne transmission. Avian influenza, H5N1 in particular, has so far not attained this capability, and is generally considered incapable of attaining such ability.  

Feb 6, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in Nepal yesterday reported H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks at farms in the eastern part of the country, while Vietnam and India reported more detections in poultry. Following massive poultry ...  

A woman in southern Vietnam has died after contracting the bird flu virus, health authorities said yesterday, in the country's second human death from the virulent disease in less than a month. Concerns about avian influenza have raised in the region with ...  

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A hospitalized man in southwestern China died of avian flu, health officials in Beijing reported Sunday. The unidentified 39-year-old man came down with a fever and other symptoms of the highly contagious H5N1 virus Jan. 6,...  

Now we know the true scale of the threat from H5N1 avian flu we should put the people who know how to stop it in charge, says Debora MacKenzie (full text available to subscribers)  

Madison, Wis.-- Veterinary researchers, urged by international government officials to censor their findings on the transmission of H5N1 influenza viruses due to risks of bioterrorism, have agreed to a two-month moratorium on their studies.  

virulent disease in the country in just under a month. The news comes after neighbouring Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia also reported deaths from avian influenza, and after chickens tested positive for the H5N1 virus in Hong Kong, prompting a mass cull  

Indonesia is aiming to manufacture its first, locally produced vaccine to combat the H5N1 avian influenza virus by 2013, with state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Biofarma working to prepare its facilities for developing the vaccine for mass production, a ...  

Background: Influenza A viruses are well characterized to antagonize type I IFN induction in infected mammalian cells. However, limited information is available for avian cells. It was hypothesised that avian influenza viruses (AIV) with distinct virulence may interact differently with the avian innate immune system. Therefore, the type I IFN responses induced by highly virulent and low virulent H5N1 AIV and reassortants thereof were analysed...  

Madison, Wis. —Veterinary researchers, urged by international government officials to censor their findings on the transmission of H5N1 influenza viruses due to risks of bioterrorism, have agreed to a two-month moratorium on their studies. Yoshihiro ...  

The principal investigators of the American and Dutch research groups that recently discovered mutations that can confer airborne transmission to the deadly H5N1 “bird flu” have released a letter rebutting the hysteria created by the media over the ...  

HANOI: A woman in southern Vietnam has died after contracting the bird flu virus, health authorities said Thursday, in the country's second human death from the virulent disease in less than a month. Concerns about avian influenza have risen in ...  

BHUBANESWAR: The bird flu virus has struck Bhubaneswar, spreading panic among dealers and consumers of poultry products here. The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory ( HSADL) of Indian Veterinary Research Institute ( IVRI) in Bhopal ...  

Avian Influenza, or A H5N1, has a mortality rate among humans of twenty to thirty times that of Spanish Flu which killed up to fifth million people in 1918/1919 and would be far, far worse than even the Black Death which assailed Europe in the fourteenth ...  

KHANH HOA – A workshop aimed at enhancing the national capacity for bird flu risk appraisal by linking animal health, health treatment, virus testing and epidemiology opened today in the central province of Khanh Hoa. The workshop takes place as bird flu ...  

A man in southwest China who contracted the bird flu virus died on Sunday, state media reported, the second human death in the Asian country from the virulent disease in just under a month.The victim fell ill on January 6 and was subsequently admitted to hospital in Guiyang -- capital of Guizhou province -- where his condition rapidly deteriorated, the official Xinhua news agency said.Tests confirmed he had contracted the H5N1 avian influenza...  

After being isolated for more than 30 hours, a 37-year-old paperboy, SA, suspected of being infected with bird flu died on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the isolation room of Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, West Java. The spokesman for avian flu control with ...  

Researchers working on the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus have voluntarily agreed to stop their studies for 60 days over concerns that their data could provide a bioterror threat. In December, scientists from two independent groups, one led by Ron ...  

The PBS NewsHour blog "The Rundown" features excerpts from interviews with three experts discussing the recent debate over research conducted on the H5N1 bird flu virus. "What began as a question on whether scientific journals should publish the ...  

Jan 30, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – The battle over dissemination of controversial research on mutant H5N1 avian influenza viruses continued in a flurry of commentaries and media letters in recent days, covering the full range of issues from the ...  

Odisha has managed to overcome the bird flu scare last month by selectively carrying out culling at two places in the coastal and northern part of the State. Following a marginal rise in temperature, not a single positive avian influenza case had been ...  

One of the biggest fears facing us when it comes to possible pandemics would have to be the dreaded H5N1 avian influenza that scientists believe could be the most dangerous influenza facing man at this point. Or at least it was until recently ...  

Another researcher whose work on the H5N1 avian flu has been delayed from publication because of the recommendations of a U.S. government advisory board, and who agreed to a 60-day moratorium on further work, has written that studies of the ...  

The 2009 flu pandemic, although not especially deadly, revealed just how quickly a new influenza virus could elude surveillance and spread internationally. It also left health experts eying the disease that many fear could cause the next pandemic: H5N1, the avian flu. According to World Health Organization standards, that virus is phenomenally deadly, killing about half the people that contract it. So far...  

State and federal wildlife officials say four of the 12 swans found dead at a Westborough pond recently have tested positive for avian influenza, but stress that there is no threat to humans.  

State and federal wildlife officials say four of the 12 swans found dead at a Westborough pond recently have tested positive for avian influenza, but stress that there is no threat to humans.  

JAPAN has banned imports of all Australian poultry products after ... involving a non-harmful strain of avian influenza that has not even been detected in commercial poultry flocks. "We would hope countries wouldn't rush into making rash decisions like ...  

HA NOI — The People's Committee of northern Ha Nam province yesterday announced the first outbreak of bird flu in Nhat Tan Commune, Kim Bang District, while many other localities reported high risk of the disease. More than 2,500 poultry, including young ...  

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued an alert to warn that studies undertaken by several institutions, which generate mutations of the H5N1 influenza virus, could pose risks to public health. H5N1 virus is commonly known as bird flu virus.  

The increase in recent outbreaks and unpredictable changes of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in birds and humans highlights the urgent need to develop a cross-protective H5N1 vaccine. We here report our development of a multiple-clade H5N1 ...  

French Tribunemeet to focus on avian fluDeccan ChronicleDoctors say that the H1N1 (swine flu) virus has mutated into the avian flu virus but fortunately no cases have been diagnosed in the state so far. “When swine flu spread rapidly in 2009 we were caught off-guard. It was a pandemic we were not prepared ...Flu vaccine could be mandatory for New Jersey health care workersThe Express Times - LehighValleyLive.comNew Flu Virus Name Avoids...  

Recently, two research teams announced that they had created strains of the avian flu virus that were transmissible between mammals. In the wild, this virus has killed about 60 percent of the 600 people who caught it. Today, based on fears of bioterrorism, the U.S. National Scientific Advisory Board on Biosecurity recommended that the journals Nature and Science restrict scientific communication of these research results. Reason Science...  

A 39-year-old man has died from avian flu in China, in the second death in less than a month from the virulent H5N1 strain.The man fell ill with a fever on January 6, and died on Sunday in a ...  

Rosa Antonez packages pasteurized eggs at the National Pasteurized Eggs (NPE) processing facility in Lansing, Illinois. The pasteurization process destroys viruses including Avian Influenza, also known as bird flu, and harmful bacteria including ...  

During roughly the same time period that health experts worldwide have been warning that the infamous H5N1 avian flu virus could soon morph into a highly-transmissible, exceedingly-deadly "super strain" capable of killing millions, scientists ...  

Despite lingering fears about the spread of bird flu in the country with the world's highest number of fatalities from the deadly avian influenza virus, Indonesia's largest pet market has survived sev .....  

Vietnam's Department of Animal Health has warned that there is a high risk of a large-scale outbreak of bird flu without drastic preventive measures in the near future. Bird flu has been reported in f .....  

Infectious diseases experts are alarmed by two recent studies in which scientists engineered a strain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that can be transmitted easily among mammals. The virus, which largely is found among birds in Africa ...  

The journal Science reported last week that the researchers agreed to a 60-day moratorium on some of the more sensitive aspects of their studies involving H5N1 in order “to provide time” for international discussions. Yesterday, members of ...  

In response to recent actions of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which recommended that two scientific journals withhold crucial details in upcoming reports about experiments with a novel strain of the bird flu virus, H5N1, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will publish a special series of commentaries by prominent scientists, including the acting chair of the NSABB, weighing in on whether the...  

Citing fears of an “unimaginable catastrophe,” a government-appointed board on Tuesday explained why it recently recommended censoring details of new research on deadly H5N1, or avian, influenza. “Our concern is that publishing these experiments in detail would provide information to some person, organization, or government that would help them to develop similar ... viruses for harmful purposes,” the 23 voting members of the National...  

Following multiple deaths in Vietnam and Cambodia, China has reported its second bird flu death in a month. While the flu was highly pathogenic, it was not confirmed to be the infamous H5N1 strain. The most recent victim was a 39-year-old male who reportedly had no contact with poultry. The World Health Organization says that [...]  

Even if a 59% mortality rate for H5N1 is too high, the virus could still cause a flu pandemic more serious than that of 1918. When the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity called for redaction of two papers on mutant strains of H5N1 avian ...  

State and federal wildlife officials say four of the 12 swans found dead at a Westborough pond recently have tested positive for avian influenza, but stress that there is no threat to humans.  

Bangladesh has experienced repeated outbreaks of avian influenza (commonly known as bird flu), nipah and anthrax of late. With its devastating effect on the poultry industry, bird flu is even now hurting 52 of the country's 64 districts. In 2010 ...  

The question is whether these new experiments increase or decrease the dangers of a bird flu pandemic. Naturally occurring H5N1 bird flu has killed nearly 60 percent of the 583 cases confirmed by the World Health Organization since 2003.  

Jan 23, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – More experts weighed in recently on various aspects of yet-unpublished H5N1 avian influenza transmissibility studies that have raised concerns about the risk of an intentional or accidental release of the mutant ...  

Andra Soraya Ramadani dies a few days after a relative died from H5N1. For health officials, it is unclear whether she was infected by the young man or by diseased birds raised near home. Avian flu also strikes in Vietnam, Cambodia and China.  

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- An airborne strain of avian flu engineered in Wisconsin isn’t lethal and can be blocked with existing medicines, the study’s lead scientist said. While the mutated virus was contagious among laboratory ferrets, it didn ...  

Researchers at the University of Southampton, University of Oxford and Retroscreeen Virology Ltd have discovered a series of peptides, found on the internal structures of influenza viruses that could lead to the development of a universal vaccine for influenza, one that gives people immunity against all strains of the disease, including seasonal, avian, and swine flu. Influenza, an acute viral infection, affects hundreds of thousands of people...  

Science and Nature jointly published a letter on Friday (January 20) declaring a voluntary 2-month suspension of research into transmission of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza. The letter, signed by 39 influenza researchers around the ...  

Bhubaneswar, Feb 6 : More than 36,000 poultry birds were culled in past two days in the capital city following detection of the of H5N1 virus at the Central Poultry Development Organisation (CDPO)farm. Bird Flu Nodal Officer Dr Gopal Tripathy said while ...  

Bird-flu virus kills second victim, health officials sayColumbus DispatchA man died yesterday in southern China from the H5N1 bird-flu virus, the Health Ministry reported. It was China's second such death in less than a month. The latest victim, an unidentified 39-year-old, fell ill on Jan. 6, Xinhua, the official news ...and more »  

A group of the leading virus experts in the U.S. has called for new, permanent restrictions on research in the face of a new genetically engineered flu virus that could kill half the population of the world.Scientists are currently observing a 60-day moratorium on research into the bird flu virus, after two groups found a way to make it infectious through airborne transmission.An outbreak of this virus could be worse than the 1918 Spanish...  

LONDON, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Bioradar UK Ltd. reported today the fifth instance in which the specific strain and specific location of an influenza outbreak were predicted by the Replikins Count® (number of genomic Replikin ...  

Agartala, Jan 25 (IANS) Bird flu or avian influenza has resurfaced in Tripura, an official said here Wednesday. Tripura animal resources development department secretary Swapan Saha told reporters: Samples of sick poultry birds from the ICAR ...  

A Japanese researcher partly-based in the United States has been forced to suspend his studies into an airborne version on the H5N1 bird flu virus over concerns that his findings could be used by bioterrorists.  

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has published “Adaptations of Avian Flu Virus Are a Cause for Concern”, an explanation of their recommendations with respect to influenza H5N1 research (versions at Science and Nature). It starts with the statement that advances in technology now allow manipulation of microbial genomes in ways that could be misused, leading to global harm. They define dual-use research as “research...  

AUSTRALIA - The Australian Chicken Meat Federation said that while the finding of a low pathogenic strain of Avian Influenza (LPAI) on a duck farm at two locations in north-west suburban Melbourne was not of concern to human health, industry and government are working quickly to eliminate the disease. The virus was detected during routine testing.  

The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recently recommended that journals Nature and Science remove certain methodological details from controversial studies on the avian influenza virus (H5N1) to minimize the risk of ...  

An airborne strain of avian flu engineered in Wisconsin isn’t lethal and can be blocked with existing medicines, the study’s lead scientist said. While the mutated virus was contagious among laboratory ferrets, it didn’t kill any of them ...  

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The scores of ducks that died at a poultry farm were not victims of avian influenza, the South Korean Agriculture Ministry said Saturday. The farm in Icheon, about 50 miles east of Seoul, was sealed off Tuesday after 110 ducks...  

The Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH) has assured that there were no signs of the deadly bird flu virus in chicken that had died in a poultry farm at Bingiriya. A spokesman for the DAPH said that investigations will be carried out even in ...  

KATHMANDU, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) - Authorities on Sunday confirmed the spread of deadly H5N1 virus among sick chickens in ... program co-ordinator of Directorate of Animal (DoA) Health said, "We had sent our samples to UK. The results are clear and the virus ...  

In December, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) decided that two papers on avian flu (H5N1) could pose a biosecurity risk if published in their entirety (see Fears grow over lab-bred flu). The NSABB advised against full ...  

Health workers in Nepal are to cull thousands of chickens following the discovery of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the southeastern part of the Himalayan country, officials said Sunday. "We sent samples for investigation to London after chickens started ...  

Morty writes "The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has recommended that details of two research papers involving Avian Flu not be published because of security concerns. At least one of the research groups says that their work should be logically reproducible. The NSABB's censorship recommendations do not (currently) have the force of law, but Science and Nature voluntarily delayed publication." Read more of this...  

A tense situation occurred amongst public today (01) when the Health Officials in Bingiriya  Area (in North Western Province)had  announced that some host Chickens  in a Poultry Farm of the area were reported as dead due to  a mysterious disease suspected as Avian Flu (Bird Flu)Even the Epidemiology Unit has sent two Medical Teams to the area to probe on this matter. However after checked the Chickens  in   relevant Poultry Farm Both...  

WASHINGTON -- Scientists who created easier-to-spread versions of the deadly bird flu said Friday they're temporarily halting more research, as international specialists debate what should happen next. Researchers from leading flu laboratories ...  

HEALTH workers in Nepal are to cull thousands of chickens following the discovery of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the southeastern part of the Himalayan country. "We sent samples for investigation to London after chickens started to die of a mysterious ...  

Vietnam today reported its second death from H5N1 avian flu this year ... including the two submitted to Science and Nature that a US biosecurity panel on Dec 20 asked not to be published in their entirety because of biosecurity concerns.  

At least 10,000 ducks will have to be destroyed to contain an outbreak of bird flu at two Victorian farms. The virus found in birds on the two properties is a low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and not the deadlier form of the virus that spread through ...  

Beijing, Jan 23 (IANS) A 39-year-old man in China’s southwestern province of Guizhou died Sunday from the bird flu virus H5N1, the health ministry said. The man felt unwell Jan 6. He was taken to hospital in the provincial town of Guiyang Jan 19 after his health condition deteriorated. Despite intensive therapy, the man [...]  

Citing fears of an “unimaginable catastrophe,” a government-appointed board on Tuesday explained why it recently recommended censoring details of new research on deadly H5N1, or avian, influenza. “Our concern is that publishing these ...  

HANOI (AP) - Vietnamese officials say they've recorded the country's first human bird flu death in nearly two years, while more cases of the H5N1 virus have recently popped up elsewhere. Related StoriesThai 'Red Shirt' firebrand appointed to CabinetEU could begin lifting Myanmar sanctions in FebruaryAmerican expert to advise UN on Cambodia court2 die from bird flu in Vietnam, CambodiaCambodia royal family seeks medical care in China  

A | MR, 18, a patient who was suspected of having contracted the H5N1 virus died on Wednesday at Tangerang General Hospital after being treated for five days in an isolation room at the city-run ...  

Bird flu has been detected at two locations north-west of Melbourne. The Department of Primary Industres has quarantined two commercial duck farms operated by the same owner, after birds at both properties tested positive to low pathogenic avian influenza ...  

AGARTALA/SILCHAR/SHILLONG: Outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza hit the ICAR complex in Agartala on Thursday prompting the authorities to cull about 2,000 ducks and chickens. The outbreak also forced authorities in neighbouring Barak Valley ...  

The best defense against a deadly attack with avian flu is the open scientific enterprise. Today the U.S. National Scientific Advisory Board for Biosecurity recommended that the journals Nature and Science restrict publication about controversial new research relevant to the transmission of avian flu between humans. The fear: Would-be bioterrorists are combing the pages of the journals for tips on how to wreak havoc. The H5N1 avian flu virus...  

The recent controversy over whether to research and publish data about a human transmissible H5N1 bird flu is disheartening to one who has spent a career advocating policies to promote and protect the public's health. I am disturbed that so much coverage ...  

A Georgetown University Medical Center professor says the voluntary action taken by two research teams to temporarily halt work involving the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is “laudable.” In the researchers’ statement, published today by  

Bird flu, or avian influenza, has resurfaced in Tripura barely within a month of declaring the country free from the disease and culling has started in villages within a 3-km radius of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research at Lambuchera in ...  

A man died in southern China on Sunday from the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Health Ministry reported. It was China’s second such death in less than a month. The latest victim, an unidentified 39-year-old, fell ill on Jan. 6 and was admitted to a ...  

Authors of recent controversial research to modify the H5N1 virus, known as the avian flu, decided to take a 60-day pause from their work Friday to explain its benefits in the midst of negative media attention. Two research groups, including one led by UW ...  

At least 20 hospitals across Central Java have been supported with assistance to deal with possible bird flu patients as the provincial administration has declared that all regencies and municipalities in the region are H5N1 endemic. “All ...  

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam has recorded its first human bird flu death in nearly two years, and although the victim worked at a duck farm the H5N1 virus has yet to be found in poultry there, officials said Thursday. Test results confirmed that an 18-year-old man died of the disease Monday after  

Should the scientist researching H5N1 halt their research because of fears that terrorist might use it? From 2003 there have been 600 cases of bird flu in over a dozen different countries. This includes Africa, Asia and many European countries. This virus ...  

The total number of deaths is now 100 out of 124 positive cases," said National Bird Flu Center spokesman, Joko Suyono. Nearly half of all humans that died from H5N1, have been from Indonesia. Nearly half of those infected in the country received the virus ...  

The authors of two H5N1-related papers, to be published in Nature and Science respectively, today announce in those journals their decision to call a voluntary 60-day pause on research involving highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses leading to the generation of viruses that are more transmissible in mammals.  

TORONTO— If Canadian scientists want to conduct research on H5N1 flu viruses modified to enhance their ability to spread, the work will have to be done in laboratories with the top level of biosecurity, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.  

JAKARTA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) - The Indonesian government is expected to be able to begin mass production of avian influenza vaccine next year, media quoting a minister reported here on Thursday. Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said that state ...  

AGARTALA, Jan 28 – Culling operations have begun in avian flu affected gram panchayats of West Tripura district on Friday after confirmation from Bhopal based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL). The State Government has already ordered ...  

Bhubaneswar, Jan 18 (PTI) Bird flu was detected in crow in two places of Odisha even as culling of fowls got underway in tribal dominated Mayurbhanj, the second district in the state hit by avian influenza. Bird flu was confirmed in two samples ...  

With the detection of  H5N1 avian virus at the Central Poultry Development Organisation  in the midst of the Capital city, Bhubaneswar, the State Animal Resource Development Department will start culling of poultry birds in and round 3 km radius of the ...  

Controversy erupted when influenza researchers announced that they had created an H5N1 influenza virus that was transmissible between ferrets. The controversy escalated when the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended that the work be published but recommended significant voluntary redactions. The responses to the NSABB action and to the research itself have been polarized. A readily transmitted H5N1 virus could be...  

The controversy over lab-created H5N1 viruses and reassortants with increased transmissibility in ferrets shows that recommendations made in 2004 by the National Academy of Sciences on oversight of potentially dangerous biological research have ...  

A Japanese researcher partly-based in the United States has been forced to suspend his studies into an airborne version on the H5N1 bird flu virus over concerns that his findings could be used by bioterrorists.  

A group of scientists have been working on a genetically modified strain of bird flu. A federal advisory board declared Tuesday that the details of the research are a “grave concern” to public safety and should be kept under wraps.  

Over the past eight years, the H5N1 avian influenza has sickened 571 people, killing 59% of them. To give some perspective, the fatality rate of the virus that caused the 1918 Great Pandemic was 2%, and that pandemic killed on the order of 50 million people.  

After the bird flu outbreak at two Victorian duck farms, other countries like Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong have placed bans on all poultry products from Victoria and across Australia. South Africa is also now asking certification that an Australian poultry import has not come from within 20km of the quarantined sites.  

Bird flu infections and deaths have been reported out of several countries in the past few days with all the cases related to exposure to poultry or pigeons. Just one day after the death of a 2-year-old toddler in Cambodia from H5N1 avian influenza ...  

Washington - Recently some science researchers controversially created a form of bird flu that was easily transmissible by air. This weekend it was announced that the research has been halted. Bird flu, or highly pathogenic avian influenza", has been ...  

In my classes, I often ask my students to wrestle with what I call damned-if-you-do-or-don’t dilemmas, which offer no easy solutions. Every choice would pose certain risks and violate one valued principle or another. We often must choose what ...  

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reminded people to avoid coming into contact with domestic birds or consuming raw poultry and eggs as a precaution against avian influenza during the Lunar New Year. During the Lunar New Year, people can be ...  

THE National Farmers Federation (NFF) has called on countries including Japan to remain objective before implementing bans on poultry products as a result of an outbreak of avian influenza among ducks in Victoria. Japan has banned chicken meat, eggs and ...  

On the lookout Too early to tell how alarming this might be. I wrote yesterday that the U.S. Government has put all H5N1 virus research on hold and stopped the presses on publishing scientific papers until the data...read more  

LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A scientist researching a potentially highly lethal airborne version of the H5N1 bird flu virus said on Wednesday he must be allowed to pursue his studies if deadly pandemics are to be prevented. Despite declaring last ...  

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian health officials say a 5-year-old girl has died of bird flu in Jakarta - just days after her uncle succumbed to the virus. Related StoriesVietnam reports 1st bird flu death in 2 yearsFugitive nabbed at Kuala Lumpur airport 6 years laterPhilippine anti-crime czar sacked for kidnapRare monkey is rediscovered in BorneoThailand recognises Palestinian state  

Amid growing controversy, scientists in two laboratories have agreed to temporarily suspend their work on mutations of the H5N1 influenza virus, or bird flu, according to a letter published in the journals Nature and Science. The goal of the ...  

Tetragenetics Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the development of recombinant vaccines, today reported preclinical study results showing that an investigational nanoparticle-based influenza vaccine protects against a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain.  

TORONTO - If Canadian scientists want to conduct research on H5N1 flu viruses modified to enhance their ability to spread, the work will have to be done in laboratories with the top level of biosecurity, the Public Health Agency of Canada says.  

Zee NewsFlu scientists agree to 60-day 'pause' in bird-flu researchWashington PostThere will be no studies of whether the currently approved H5N1 vaccine protects against the new strains — something that both pharmaceutical companies and public health agencies eagerly want to know. Analysis of wild H5N1 strains causing illness ...Pause on avian flu transmission studiesNature.comResearchers Pause Work on Bird Flu That Could Kill Hundreds of...  

Researchers and journals agreed to withhold publishing research that could aid in the replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm. The request came from a U.S. government biosecurity agency and relates to the H5N1 avian flu virus.  

The six provinces are Central Java (in Sragen and Brebes), East Java (in Lamongan), Riau (in Pekanbaru), East Kalimantan (in Panajam Paser Utara), Jambi (in Muaro Jambi) and South Sulawesi (in Sidrap). “Of the six provinces, the number of dead birds is ...  

Australian authorities have ordered on Wednesday the destruction of some 24,000 ducks in Victoria to contain the spread of the avian flu detected in the southern region of the country. Reports of new cases of bird flu prompted Japan, Hong Kong ...  

Indonesia yesterday reported its second human death from bird flu this year, with the death of a five-year-old girl who recently lost her relative to the deadly virus. Concerns about avian influenza have risen in the region after China late last month ...  

HANOI, VIETNAM (AP) - A Vietnamese official on Thursday confirmed the country's second human death from bird flu in less than a month, after it went nearly two years with no reported fatalities.Test results confirm that a 26-year-old woman died of the disease Jan. 28 after being hospitalized in southern ...  

Amid growing controversy, scientists in two laboratories have agreed to temporarily suspend their work on mutations of the??H5N1 influenza virus, or bird flu,??according to??a letter published in the journals Nature and Science. The goal of the research is to detect when the virus may mutate in the wild and spark a pandemic. ??According to an ...  

Indonesia on Friday reported its second human death from bird flu this year, with the death of a five-year-old girl who recently lost her relative to the deadly virus. Concerns about avian influenza have risen in the region after China in late December  

I counter that H5N1 viruses circulating in nature already pose a threat, because influenza viruses mutate constantly and can cause pandemics with great losses of life. Within the past century, ‘Spanish’ influenza, which stemmed from a virus ...  

Aman in southwest China who contracted the bird flu virus died on Sunday, health authorities said, the second human death from the virulent disease in the Asian country in just under a month. Concerns about avian influenza have risen across ...  

VIETNAM yesterday confirmed its first human death from bird flu in nearly two years, a day after neighboring Cambodia also logged its first fatality this year as new cases of the H5N1 virus are reported in Asia and...  

A COMMERCIAL duck farm on two sites north-west of Melbourne are in quarantine after birds tested positive to Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Department of Primary Industries chief veterinary officer Andrew Cameron said tests had returned positive to low ...  

The authors of a pair of studies on a deadly strain of H5N1 ... such research for 60 days to allow an international scientific discussion about the controversy. The researchers had created a mutation that made the virus transmissible between ...  

A scientist researching a potentially highly lethal airborne version of the H5N1 bird flu virus said on Wednesday he must be allowed to pursue his studies if deadly pandemics are to be prevented. Source: Reuters Health Related MedlinePlus Pages: Biodefense and Bioterrorism, Bird Flu  

Two months after touching off controversy by asking both Science and Nature to publish only abbreviated versions of new research on the H5N1 avian flu virus, members of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) said they ...  

Citing safety risks of "unusually high magnitude," a U.S. advisory panel has explained why it recommended limiting publication of two bird flu research papers in late December. Bird flu, or H5N1, is a virus that thus far has rarely sickened humans -- but ...  

Due to the low pathogenic avian influenza was discovered on two duck farms in Victoria State, Japan halted imports of Australian poultry products. “Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry stated in an e-mail today, the import ...  

Los Angeles TimesPandemic 2009 H1N1 virus gives wings to avian fluNature.com (blog)Has the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic increased the risk that the H5N1 avian flu virus could evolve to create a human pandemic? That's a possibility raised by the work of Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the main conclusions of which ...Bird flu researcher reveals details of his findingsCTV.caall 226 news articles »  

In December 2011, the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) advised that two research teams that had genetically altered the H5N1 virus to be easily transmissible among ferrets redact some of the research details before publishing in the journals Science and Nature.  

Bird flu studies at the centre of a heated controversy pose ... or hybrids containing some H5N1 genes -- that bypass what have seem to have been natural barriers to its ability to spread easily in mammals. (Both groups did work in ferrets, the animal ...  

National vaccine manufacturer PT Bio Farma here on Wednesday received the prototype of an Avian Influenza (AI) vaccine developed by University of Indonesia (UI) researchers.  

25,000 ducks have been destroyed. Veterinarian Dr Peter Scott, who advises the egg industry, says it's likely to have been spread by wild waterfowl . "This is what they call the low pathogenic AI because in this particular flock of ducks, there was no ...  

H5N1 flu is found by researchers to spread quickly in the lungs, which is why the disease is so lethal. Sixty percent of victims succumb to respiratory distress syndrome because the bird flu virus targets human pulmonary endothelial cells and destroys them ...  

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang has become the third province in Vietnam to report bird flu outbreak this year, the Department of Animal Health reported Sunday. The agency made the statement just over two months after announcing that the epidemic ...  

JAKARTA, Jan 21 (Bernama) -- Indonesia has raised the alert on bird flu following the confirmation of a second death due to H5N1 infection, involving a five-year-old girl from Sunter, North Jakarta. The Jakarta administration had culled hundreds of fowl ...  

The U.S. biosecurity advisers who blocked publication of controversial bird flu studies say they did so because they thought the risk the studies pose is of unusually high magnitude. The group says a pandemic with the H5N1 flu virus, either ...  

"Engineered Doomsday." "Mutant Bird Flu." These may sound like the names of disaster movies, but they are headlines on recent news reports about experiments involving the H5N1 influenza virus. The H5N1 virus is known as a "bird flu" because it ...  

MORE than 10,000 ducks will be destroyed after a bird flu outbreak was detected at farms in Melbourne’s north west. The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) quarantined the commercial duck farm after birds tested positive to a low pathogenic strain of the virus.  

Scientists have agreed to pause temporarily the research on the development of H5N1 influenza virus mutations among growing controversies. This research was done to detect when the virus may mutate in the wild. Scientists have reported this “pause” in a letter published in the journal Nature and Science. In this case, according to experts, it is easier than previously thought to develop mutations and permitting the virus to transmit from...  

The fear is that readily available published information regarding this deadly flu can be utilized by malicious forces who aim to harm populations rather than use scientific research to promote health and mitigate health threats. The potential for this ...  

Earlier this month, the scientists who altered the H5N1 virus to create a more contagious strain that's transmissible between ferrets, agreed to a temporary moratorium, due to safety concerns. The NewsHour reported the story here and here . [More]  

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam on Thursday confirmed its first human death from bird flu in nearly two years, a day after neighboring Cambodia also logged its first fatality this year as new cases of the H5N1 virus are reported in Asia and the ...  

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam on Thursday reported its first human death from bird flu in nearly two years, as the virus also claimed the life of a toddler in Cambodia. Concerns about avian influenza have risen in the region after China in late December ...  

A group of the leading virus experts in the US has called for permanent restrictions on research in the face of a new genetically engineered flu virus that could kill half the population of the world. Scientists are currently observing a 60-day ...  

Vietnam and Cambodia confirmed new human deaths from bird flu this week. The two victims, an 18-year-old Vietnamese man and a two-year-old Cambodian boy, caught the lethal virus, also known as H5N1, from poultry -- not from contact with infected ...  

BEIJING - A man died in southern China from the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Health Ministry reported on Sunday. It was China's second such death in less than a month. The latest victim, an unidentified 39-year-old, fell ill on Jan. 6 and was ...  

BHUBANESWAR: The steady rise in day temperature after Makar Sankranti (January 15) may soon prove to be the end of the present bird flu menace in the state. "With winter being on its last leg and days becoming warmer, the avian influenza fear is ...  

BLUE BELL, Pa., Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: INO) announced today that its synthetic vaccines for influenza Type A H3N2 and Type B achieved protective antibody responses in immunized animals against multiple unmatched strains. Inovio previously reported that its H5N1 synthetic vaccine achieved hemagglutination inhibition...  

Shillong, Jan 13 (IANS) Authorities have begun mopping up and sanitisation operations in bird flu-hit Williamnagar in western Meghalaya as they continued culling domesticated fowls there, an official said Friday. “We have started mopping up and sanitisation operation on the Williamnagar farm - the epicentre of H5N1 virus - after 560 birds were culled [...]  

After the government asked journals to cut two studies, concerns about censorship took center stage, but what does it mean for research? Better late than never, Science published, yesterday, a set of Policy Forum articles "exploring the implications of ...  

AT least 10,000 ducks will have to be destroyed to contain an outbreak of bird flu at two Victorian farms. The virus found in birds on the two properties is a low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and not the deadlier form of the virus that spread through ...  

Researchers in the Netherlands and in Wisconsin have created new strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus that for the first time can be transmitted through the air. Right now, a person has to spend some time in fairly close contact with birds, usually chickens or ducks, in order to acquire this virus. The bad news is that the virus has killed 60 percent of the nearly 600 people who have come down with it. In the last month, two men have died of...  

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnamese officials say they've recorded the country's first human bird flu death in nearly two years, while more cases of the H5N1 virus have recently popped up elsewhere. Dang Thi Thanh of southern Kien Giang province's health department says test results confirm that an  

I will be on NPR’s Science Friday this afternoon (6 January, 2 PM EST) to discuss the H5N1-NSABB story. You can listen live, or download the recording which will be available later. I written three posts (one, two, three) about the ferret H5N1 experiments and why the NSABB should not prevent the publication of these data. I’m a bit dismayed that Science Friday tweeted about this event earlier today saying “Today, 2-3p ET we’ll talk about the...  

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tetragenetics today reported preclinical study results showing that an investigational nanoparticle-based influenza vaccine protects against a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain.  

Vietnam has recorded its first human bird flu death in nearly two years, and although the victim worked at a duck farm the H5N1 virus has yet to be found in poultry there, officials said Thursday. Test results confirmed that an 18-year-old man died of the disease Monday after being hospitalized a day earlier, said Dang Thi Thanh of southern Kien Giang province's health department. She said the man was working at a duck farm in...  

The Egyptian Ministry of Health said that a 19 years old Egyptian, died Saturday of bird flu, becoming the 21st victim of the H5N1 virus since its appearance in 2006 in Egypt. Mohammed Idris Hassan Ibrahim, in the province of Beheira, in the Nile Delta ...  

GLOBAL - La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests. US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.  

The professor who oversees biosafety for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's controversial avian influenza research responded Monday to mounting criticism about the necessity and safety of the research, saying "ongoing research with H5N1 remains salient ...