Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Experts descend on Jakarta to sort out bird flu outbreaks

An international team of experts are meeting in Jakarta this week to assess the avian flu situation in Indonesia.

19 Jun 2006

Chickens may be silent carriers of bird flu

Health officials are on alert again in Hong Kong following reports of a suspected case of bird flu just over the border with China in Shenzhen.

14 Jun 2006

USAID announces $5 Million award to track bird flu

USAID announces $5 million award to support the development of a global network to track avian influenza, with the aim of monitoring the role of migratory birds.

13 Jun 2006

Hospitals, dirty hands and the risk of disease

Thousands of patients in hospitals each year are at risk of potentially fatal infections because health care workers do not wash their hands on enough occasions.

13 Jun 2006

Nventa granted European patent covering heat shock protein fusion to treat influenza

Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation announced that the European Patent Office has granted Patent Number EP 941,315 to Nventa.

8 Jun 2006

Have we got it right about bird flu?

Health officials in Indonesia must have breathed a sigh of relief at the the World Health Organisation's (WHO) news that bird flu has been ruled out in the cases of four Indonesian nurses who fell sick after caring for people infected with H5N1 virus.

8 Jun 2006

Indonesia struggling to cope - quake survivors at greater risk of bird flu

Indonesia's devastating earthquake on 27 May, has so far taken the lives of over 6,000 people and injured 30,000 more.

6 Jun 2006

Indonesian bird flu death toll now up to 37

Confirmation by the World Health Organization that a 15-year-old boy who died in West Java, Indonesia last week, was the latest bird flu victim, takes Indonesia's confirmed deaths from the virus to 37.

4 Jun 2006

Siblings deaths may indicate another bird flu cluster in Indonesia

According to an Indonesian health ministry official, a 7-year-old Indonesian girl who died last week has tested positive for bird flu in local tests; the results have yet to be confirmed by a World Health Organisation-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong.

4 Jun 2006

Avian flu facts

Avian influenza (also called "bird flu") refers to the strains of the virus that infect birds. Bird flu can cause widespread illness and death among birds, though there are many different strains, which vary in strength.

1 Jun 2006

WHO bird flu situation update

Indonesian health authorities and WHO have further strengthened their response to the family cluster of cases in Kubu Simbelang village, Karo District, North Sumatra.

31 May 2006

Australia all set to tackle bird flu

Australia is one of only a few countries well prepared for an outbreak of bird flu in it's poultry population.

31 May 2006

What to do about bird flu

The latest deaths last week from bird flu in Indonesia have spread alarm across the globe that the world is on the brink of a pandemic.

30 May 2006

Birthplace of AIDS found

After a 10-year search for the origin of HIV, scientists say they have finally traced the initial source of the global pandemic presently affecting more than 40-million people worldwide.

29 May 2006

WHO ships Tamiflu to Indonesia just in case

A Hong Kong laboratory officially recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed the latest four cases of bird flu infection in humans in Indonesia.

29 May 2006

Bird flu doing the rounds, back again in China

According to official sources in China an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has been detected among wild birds in the remote far-western Qinghai province and in Tibet.

25 May 2006

WHO says Indonesian bird flu cluster does not show virus has mutated

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that despite the cluster of seven members from the same Indonesian family dying of bird flu this month, it does not signify that the virus has mutated and is being transmitted from human to human.

25 May 2006

Two more deaths from bird flu as Indonesia tries to track down souce of 'cluster' deaths

While Health officials in Indonesia are still trying to track down the source of infection in a cluster of six deaths in one family from H5N1 bird flu, tests show that two more people have also died of the same disease.

23 May 2006

WHO suffers tragic loss of a visionary leader

The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Lee Jong-wook of South Korea, has died suddenly following surgery for a blood clot on the brain.

22 May 2006