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Below is a round-up of the key developments on the spread of the bird flu virus (H5N1) and the threat it poses to human health. Each title is a link to the full article.


Click here to see the latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures of confirmed human cases.


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Monday 2 April 2007
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South East Asian nations agree to improve bird flu cooperation
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan have agreed to strengthen cooperation on disease surveillance, treatment and epidemiology and break down national barriers in the fight against bird flu (Source: Bangkok Post).


Glaxo proposes subsidised mass bird flu vaccinations
GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s largest drugs company, is in talks with the World Health Organization about a proposal for subsidising a mass vaccination programme against bird flu for people in developing countries (Source: The Times).


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Sunday 1 April 2007
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Myanmar and Thailand to cooperate in preventing bird flu
Myanmar and Thailand will draw up a plan for cooperative action against bird flu in the border regions between the two countries (Source: Xinhua).


Bird flu re-emerges in Vietnam
Bird flu has been found on a duck farm in southern Vietnam — the first outbreak of the disease in the country since early March, said the Agriculture Ministry’s Animal Health Department (Source: Reuters).


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Saturday 31 March 2007
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Kuwait culls 1.5 million birds to fight bird flu
Kuwait is culling 1.5 million birds after almost 40 new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu were confirmed in fowl (Source: Reuters).


Three Egyptian children test positive for bird flu
Three Egyptian children have tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus: a four-year-old boy in the province of Qena, a seven-year-old boy in Sohag, and a four-year-old girl from Qalyoubia province, according to Egypt’s Health Ministry (Source: Reuters).


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Friday 30 March 2007
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Indonesian doctor treated for suspected bird flu
A doctor who treated a 15-year-old boy who died last month from bird flu at a hospital in Bandung is being treated in an isolation ward after developing symptoms of the disease (Source: Reuters).


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Thursday 29 March 2007
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Bangladesh gets US$38 million grant for bird flu prevention
The Asian Development Bank, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization and the WHO, is assisting Bangladesh in the prevention and control of bird flu (Source: All Headline News).


Two Indonesians die of bird flu
A 14-year-old boy from West Sumatra and a 28-year-old woman from Jakarta have died of bird flu in Indonesia, a health ministry official said (Source: Reuters).


Vietnam plans poultry vaccination for risky winter season
Vietnam plans to vaccinate up to 90 per cent of its poultry, fearing a return of bird flu after a brief lull in the summer (Source: Reuters).


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Wednesday 28 March 2007
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China confirms human death from bird flu
A provincial health official confirmed that a 16-year-old boy from Bengbu in eastern China’s rural Anhui province has died from the H5N1 bird flu virus (Source: Reuters).


Egypt seeks to bar live bird trade over H5N1 fears
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has proposed a law to bar the trade and transport of live birds to help prevent the spread of the bird flu virus, state media reported (Source: Reuters).


Bangladesh seeks better bird flu testing
Bangladesh has called for international help to upgrade their bird flu testing facilities, as the country battles a large outbreak of the disease in poultry (Source: Reuters).


Doctors test doubling Tamiflu doses to cut H5N1 deaths
Doctors will give double doses of Tamiflu to patients suffering from bird flu in a trial aimed at cutting high death rates from the virus (Source: Reuters).


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Tuesday 27 March 2007
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Two Egyptian children test positive for bird flu
Two Egyptian children have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus: a 6-year-old from the southern province of Qena and 5-year-old from Minya in central Egypt (Source: Reuters).


Thailand and Vietnam sign bird flu protocol
Thailand and Vietnam have reached an agreement for joint effort to contain and control bird flu, as well as joint research efforts (Source: Bangkok Post).


WHO and developing nations reach vaccine access deal
The WHO reached a ‘breakthrough agreement’ with 18 developing nations on a fair mechanism for bird flu vaccine access, and, as part of the deal, Indonesia agreed to resume sending virus samples to the WHO (Source: Reuters).


Two suspected bird flu deaths in Indonesia
A 15-year-old boy from Indramayu in West Java and a 22-year-old woman from Palembang in southeast Sumatra have died from suspected bird flu, a health ministry official said (Source: Reuters).


Vietnamese duck farms lax about bird flu precautions
A study in Dong Thap province in Vietnam’s Mekong delta has found that around 90 per cent of duck farms fail to meet sanitation standards (Source: Thanhnien News).


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Monday 26 March 2007
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Children are most vulnerable to bird flu, says UN Children’s Fund
Children will be the most vulnerable in a bird flu pandemic, says the UN Children’s Fund, pointing out that one third of the number reported dead due to the virus have been children (Source: The Philippine Information Agency).


Indonesia says WHO rules on sharing bird flu samples must change
The Indonesian government says WHO rules on sharing bird flu samples with private companies are unacceptable and must change (Source: VOA News).