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FDA approves new Roche direct detection of West Nile Virus in donated human blood

Roche Diagnostics announced that the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its biologics license application for the company's test for direct detection of West Nile Virus in donated human blood and plasma.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 29 Aug 2007

German bird flu outbreak could be more widespread than first suspected

Veterinary officials in Germany now believe the outbreak of bird flu on a duck farm in southern Germany was more widespread and of longer duration than was first suspected.

29 Aug 2007

Limited human-to-human spread of Avian-flu virus in Indonesia in 2006 confirmed

In the first systematic, statistical analysis of its kind, infectious-disease-modeling experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center confirm that the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in 2006 spread between a small number of people within a family in Indonesia.

28 Aug 2007

Animal model for dengue research

A mosquito-borne disease often known as "break-bone fever" has found a new enemy in a unique type of mouse.

28 Aug 2007

IDM Pharma receives not approvable letter for Mifamurtide for treatment of osteosarcoma

IDM Pharma, Inc. ( NASDAQ:IDMI ) announced today that it received a not approvable letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after completing the review of the new drug application (NDA) for the investigational drug mifamurtide (L-MTP-PE), formerly known as Junovan, for the treatment of non-metastatic osteosarcoma, a rare and often fatal bone tumor that typically affects children and young adults.

28 Aug 2007

Academic comments on horse flu scare

We should not be shocked that equine influenza has emerged in Australia. What is surprising is that we kept it out for so long. The Australian thoroughbred breeding and racing industry has received huge financial benefits from globalisation, but this process carries enormous risks. Foremost is the risk of disease.

28 Aug 2007

Bird flu hits Germany, 160,000 geese slaughtered

Following an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in southern Germany 160,000 geese have been slaughtered and a three-kilometer exclusion zone has been set up around the farm.

27 Aug 2007

One more suspected death from bird flu in Bali

The death of another suspected bird flu patient has put health officials in Bali on a high alert amid fears of a wider outbreak.

27 Aug 2007

Roche and WHO reinforce Tamiflu as primary H5N1 treatment

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reinforced that Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is the primary recommended antiviral of choice in managing patients infected with H5N1 in updated guidance published on the WHO website today.

24 Aug 2007

WHO says more killer diseases like AIDS on their way

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the world to expect a new killer disease to emerge in the next few years which will threaten the lives of millions.

23 Aug 2007

Bali hit by bird flu again

There has been another death from bird flu in Bali; this time the victim is a 28-year-old woman.

22 Aug 2007

Flu vaccines more effective when sweetened

Scientists in Australia have discovered a simple way of making flu vaccines much more effective.

21 Aug 2007

New target for the development of anti-influenza drugs

Scientists at Cure Lab, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Canton, Massachusetts, in collaboration with researchers at Boston University and Harvard Medical School have discovered a potential new target for the development of anti-influenza (flu) drugs, including those that may be effective against potentially pandemic influenza strains like H5N1.

17 Aug 2007

Most flu shot plans do not address how to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations

Most flu immunization plans in the United States do not address how to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations (HTR)--undocumented immigrants, substance users, the homeless, homebound elderly, and minorities--and this potentially dangerous omission can lead masses of people to become ill during an outbreak of pandemic flu or other contagious disease, according to a new study by the New York Academy of Medicine in the current issue of the Journal of Urban Health.

17 Aug 2007

Preventing the spread of zoonotic diseases

Instead of attacking wild birds for our new disease problems, a far more cost effective approach should focus on keeping wild animals separate in the places where they often commingle: in wildlife markets and international trade, according to wildlife health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a recent issue of the prestigious Journal of Wildlife Diseases.

17 Aug 2007

Baxter awarded major contract for flu vaccine in the event of a pandemic

Baxter International Inc. has announced that Baxter's European subsidiary in the United Kingdom has entered into an advanced supply agreement with the Department of Health that contains an option to purchase pandemic influenza vaccine in the event the World Health Organization (WHO) declares a pandemic.

From Baxter International Inc. 17 Aug 2007

Bird flu death in Bali - Australians on alert

Health officials in Indonesia have confirmed the first human death from bird flu in Bali in a village in the north-west district of Jembrana, an area where poultry is known to be affected.

13 Aug 2007

Legionnaires' disease in Surrey with links to Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright

The Health Protection Agency can confirm that its Surrey Health Protection Unit is involved in an investigation with the Health and Safety Executive and local environmental health officers of a reported case of Legionnaires' disease with alleged links to the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, in Surrey .

12 Aug 2007

Scientists prepare for future pandemic strains of H5N1

Preparing vaccines and therapeutics that target a future mutant strain of H5N1 influenza virus sounds like science fiction, but it may be possible, according to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a collaborator at Emory University School of Medicine.

11 Aug 2007