H5N1 News and Research

Latest H5N1 News and Research

Promising results on avian influenza vaccines

Experts meeting this week at the World Health Organization (WHO) on advances in pandemic influenza vaccine development reported encouraging progress.

18 Feb 2007

Bird flu - latest case in Egypt

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that an Egyptian woman has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus.

18 Feb 2007

Battle of blame continues in Britain over bird flu

As investigations into the cause of the outbreak of bird flu in Britain continue, British scientists say they have found that the strains of H5N1 bird flu in England and Hungary are "essentially identical".

14 Feb 2007

Seasonal flu vaccine offers some protection from H5N1

The yearly influenza vaccine that health officials urge people to get each fall might also offer certain individuals some cross protection against the H5N1 virus commonly known as bird flu, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

13 Feb 2007

British bird flu - who's to blame?

The Hungarian Agriculture Ministry has admitted that turkey meat from a plant near the site of a Hungarian bird flu outbreak was sold to various parts of Europe including Britain.

12 Feb 2007

Death toll at 65 as two more Indonesians die from bird flu

Indonesian health officials say a 20-year-old woman who tested positive for bird flu has died, making her the country's 64th human victim of the deadly H5N1 virus.

11 Feb 2007

British Government caught on the back foot over bird flu outbreak

Authorities in Britain have been caught on the back foot after it was revealed by the media that turkey meat from Hungary had been allowed into the country.

11 Feb 2007

Preparing for the next flu pandemic

A combination of antiviral drugs should be stockpiled for use in an influenza pandemic, say researchers in the British Medical Journal.

11 Feb 2007

Link between British and Hungarian bird flu outbreaks now suspected

Scientists in Britain investigating the outbreak of bird flu in a flock of turkeys in Suffolk now say there may be a link with an outbreak in Hungary in January.

8 Feb 2007

Second worker tested for bird flu on British farm

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the UK has announced that the vet who became ill after working on the farm where an outbreak of bird flu has occurred, has tested negative for the virus.

7 Feb 2007

Worker involved in British bird flu outbreak undergoing tests for the virus

According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in Britain one of the workers who had been dealing with the bird flu outbreak in Suffolk in England has been admitted to hospital.

7 Feb 2007

British experts baffled by bird flu outbreak

Although more than 150,000 turkeys have been slaughtered at a farm in Suffolk in England in order to curb the spread of the deadly bird flu virus, officials remain baffled as to the source of the outbreak.

5 Feb 2007

Hurricane style warning system will help U.S. cope with a bird flu pandemic

The plan is an early-warning ranking system similar to that deployed at times of hurricanes and is intended to protect and mobilize the country against a flu pandemic.

4 Feb 2007

Brits on high alert as bird flu kills thousands of turkeys

British health officials have confirmed that the avian flu virus which killed 2,600 turkeys at a farm in Lowestoft, Suffolk was indeed the H5N1 virus.

4 Feb 2007

Scientists change bird flu virus and stop it spreading

Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that just two small changes in the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic stopped it from jumping between mammals in the laboratory.

4 Feb 2007

Indonesia comes up with bird flu vaccine

The head of Indonesia's national committee on avian influenza has announced that scientists there have developed a bird flu vaccine for humans.

1 Feb 2007

Nigeria confirms avian influenza infection in woman from Lagos

The government of Nigeria has announced the death from suspected avian influenza infection in a 22-year-old female from Lagos. She died on 16 January 2007.

31 Jan 2007

Molecular change in 1918 pandemic influenza virus stops transmission

Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that a molecular change in the 1918 pandemic influenza virus stops its transmission in ferrets that were in close proximity, shedding light on the properties that allowed the 1918 pandemic virus to spread so quickly.

31 Jan 2007

Japanese authorities battle with third outbreak of bird flu

Health officials in Japan confirm that chickens on a farm in Okayama have died from a strain of bird flu; around 40 birds are thought to have succumbed to the virus which has not as yet been determined to be the deadly H5N1 strain.

29 Jan 2007

GlaxoSmithKline's new influenza vaccine accepted for review in Europe

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that its new generation H5N1 split antigen pre-pandemic influenza vaccine has been accepted for review by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) in Europe.

29 Jan 2007