Lack of exposure to a particular influenza strain means you won’t have had a chance to build up complete immunity. And if the strain spreads easily between people and there is little immunity in communities…
Where doe outbreaks of avian influenza come from?
Flickr/cskk
While Hong Kong has just reported its first case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu indicating that the virus may be spreading across China, Australia is reporting an egg shortage over Christmas as a result of…
Viral workload: how did H7N9 make the human-to-human leap?
James Gathany
The H7N9 virus is thought to have been transmitted between a 60-year-old man in China and his 32-year-old daughter, who cared for him. Experts said she had been previously healthy and, unlike her father…
Facts about Flu - Ever wondered what flu classifications mean? Read on. The pandemic influenza strain, or swine flu, that spread globally in 2009 was referred to as H1N1 and the new bird flu currently…
Indonesian health officers take blood samples for bird flu tests from residents in Jakarta.
AAP
Controversial research into the H5N1 virus, more commonly known as bird flu, is set to recommence, after it was delayed in 2011 following a request from the US government. The research had raised biosecurity…
Bird flu has devastated poultry stocks and killed hundreds in Asia.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joegatling/
Researchers hoping to produce modified chickens hatched with in-built resistance to bird flu will conduct trials on live hens later this year, an Australian scientist said on Tuesday. CSIRO research scientist…
Climate change has led to modified bird migration patterns.
Vinoth Chandar
Maybe it’s just a normal part of growing older and “taking the time to smell the roses”, but I’ve been finding over the past few years that I’m much more interested in birds. That hasn’t yet turned me…
Only a lab test can confirm what virus you’ve been infected with.
Jason Rogers
Influenza or flu is one of those dustbin words used by the media and by health professionals to cover the myriad causes of a respiratory infection. The only way to be sure is with laboratory testing of…
Scientists could reconstruct the work on the avian flu virus from clues, making suppression of future work counterproductive.
AAP
Researchers working on a pathogenic strain of avian flu (H5N1) have agreed to pause their work for 60 days so international experts can discuss the safest ways to proceed. But it’s important to ensure…
Are the benefits of openness worth the risk of releasing a new superflu?
Ars Electronica
Two studies, one carried out in the Netherlands by Ron Fouchier and the other in Japan by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, are causing controversy over the creation of a new strain of H5N1 Avian Influenza or “bird flu…
Health officials contain a bird flu outbreak in Nepal - but the US fears that deviants could learn from science journals how to mutate the virus into a form readily transmissible to and between humans. AAP/EPA/Narendra Shresth.
Two teams of virologists preparing to publish their research into mutations of avian influenza virus H5N1 are censoring their manuscripts after a US biosecurity agency said that publication of the studies…
Bird flu transmission to humans is rare and hasn’t occurred with this new strain.
AAP
The circulation of a new strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus from China and Vietnam has prompted calls from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN for health authorities to be ready for a possible…
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University and Adjunct Professor Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh