Recent News

By Region: Asia/Pacific

Griffith University tackles deadly Hendra virus

(Griffith University) Australian medical researchers are on the brink of an effective human treatment for the deadly Hendra virus, and potentially the closely related Nipah virus, which has killed more than 200 people in South East Asia. Associate Professor Nigel McMillan from Griffith University’s School of Medical Science has been awarded Australian Federal Government funding Read More »

June 7, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Public Health, and Research
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Censored H5N1 Bird Flu Studies: Much Ado About Nothing?

(TakePart) Why we might have all freaked out for the wrong reasons. You may have heard the hubbub surrounding two different studies on H5N1 —aka Bird Flu—recently conducted in Wisconsin and The Netherlands. The researchers in both cases put the virus through a series of mutations in order to better understand how it may eventually Read More »

June 6, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Boy’s case isolated, bird flu outbreak unlikely

(China Daily) All of the contacts of a 2-year-old boy who tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland were either asymptomatic or tested negative for bird flu, authorities of the special administrative region and Guangdong province said, suggesting that the chance of an outbreak was slim. Read More »

June 6, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agriculture, and Public Health
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Early vaccination key to new FMD response plan

(Beef Central) Early vaccination will play an important role in a new national Foot and Mouth Disease policy developed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The new policy is designed to improve Australia’s preparedness against the disease. DAFF Deputy Secretary, Rona Mellor, said while Australia has been free of foot-and-mouth disease for more Read More »

June 4, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agriculture, Countermeasures, and Policy & Initiatives
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Hong Kong H5 infection raises alert level

(CIDRAP News) Hong Kong health officials raised the pandemic influenza response level from alert to serious today after one of the local hospitals confirmed an H5 infection in a boy from China’s Guandong province. In a statement, Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection (CHP) said the 2-year-old boy came down with a fever and runny Read More »