Luckily, the annual search for a vaccine against seasonal flu is helping scientists as they seek immunization against its much deadlier cousin, H5N1 avian influenza. According to experts, avian flu vaccines are essentially made in the same way as the regular flu vaccine. According to Levandowski, there are vaccine products at all different levels of development for both seasonal and avian flu strains. That's much lower than the regular seasonal flu vaccine, making it unclear as to how...

EDITORIAL Positive step in bird-flu battle The government plans to devote billions to a vital strategy to stave off and deal with a potential pandemic A few eyebrows were raised when the Social Development and Human Security Ministry said last week it was seeking a budget of Bt9 billion to put a comprehensive strategy in place to ensure Thailand is better prepared for a bird-flu outbreak. EDITORIAL Positive step in bird-flu battle The government plans to devote billions to a vital strategy...

Bhutan is wary of bird flu attack as nearly 5,000 poultry birds died of the disease in a poultry farm near Darjeeling in West Bengal. Bhutan may enforce a ban on import of chicken meat and eggs from India if reports of death of nearly 5,000 poultry birds due to bird flu in a poultry farm in West Bengal are proved true, officials have said. Bhutan may ban import of Indian poultry products. Without confirming, we do not take any action," he said. The department has already sent a veterinary...

Third in a series of reports on deadling with the threat from avian influenza. Yet people often do not follow the rules about preventing bird flu. What happens if you follow all these rules and someone in your family gets sick? How will you know if it is bird flu? People who could be infected with the bird flu virus will have difficulty breathing. Most bird flu cases in human beings have resulted from people touching infected farm birds, such as chickens, ducks or turkeys. The government...

The fowl had not been vaccinated against bird flu, it said. Animal health workers have slaughtered the remaining 2,500 ducks in the farms, disinfected the area and banned poultry transport from the infected area. The Animal Health Department said nearly half of Vietnam's 64 provinces have completed the first of a two-phase vaccination campaign which targets up to 90 percent of the country's poultry stock this year. The virus emerged again among ducks and chickens in the south late last...