Avian flu threat

November 5, 2005

Sun Q&A

Health reporters on the flu threat

Darlene Cook, Baltimore: If this flu is such a threat, shouldn't we avoid eating all birds and their products? How motivated are the producers to cull out their sick birds?

September 16, 2005

U.S. government purchases $100 million stockpile of avian flu vaccine

WASHINGTON - The federal government is buying $100 million of avian flu vaccine in the first step toward building a stockpile that would protect 20 million Americans from an outbreak of the deadly virus.

August 8, 2005

U.S. set to rush order of avian flu vaccine

WASHINGTON -- Mass production of a new vaccine that scientists believe can protect against an avian flu outbreak could begin as early as mid-September, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said yesterday.

August 7, 2005

Test of avian flu vaccine succeeds

WASHINGTON - Government scientists say they have successfully tested in humans a vaccine that they believe can protect against the strain of avian influenza that is spreading in birds through Asia and Russia.

July 2, 2005

Chinese government still hedges on avian flu

BEIJING - The scene was reminiscent of early 2003, just before the world learned about SARS: A small room in central Beijing, filled with journalists skeptically asking World Health Organization experts this week about a potential new health threat in China.

July 1, 2005

A versatile virus

The flu season that arrives each fall kills an average of 36,000 people in the United States alone. Far deadlier are worldwide outbreaks, called pandemics, that periodically sweep through human populations.

July 1, 2005

Study of Vietnam outbreak calms fears

Following an investigation of avian flu cases in Vietnam, the World Health Organization yesterday said it found no evidence that the virus had mutated in ways that would make it more easily transmitted among humans.

June 28, 2005

UM scientists study role of wild birds in spread of avian flu

COLLEGE PARK - In a low-slung building far from virus-plagued Southeast Asia, scientists are leading a sweeping inquiry into the role that migratory waterfowl and other wild birds might play in spreading avian flu.

June 12, 2005

Fears of flu pandemic spurring preparations

They gathered around a hotel conference table in Howard County, planning for what might be Maryland's worst public health crisis.

March 24, 2005

UM to conduct human tests of avian flu vaccine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine and two other institutions next week will begin human tests of a vaccine designed to combat avian influenza - widely feared for its potential to cause the next global pandemic .

January 24, 2005

Avian flu shows a more sinister side, scientists say

Scientists have reported the first case of avian flu passing from person to person and causing severe disease, fulfilling what some say could be an intermediate step toward the deadly flu becoming a wider human epidemic.

March 11, 2004

Md. officials hear USDA assurances on bird flu

WASHINGTON - Maryland's congressional delegation, alarmed by the weekend appearance of avian influenza on the lower Eastern Shore, were reassured by a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian yesterday that local officials and the industry are acting aggressively to contain the economically dangerous disease.

March 9, 2004

Bird flu yet to hurt industry

While the avian influenza outbreak continues to reverberate on the Delmarva Peninsula - with the latest case discovered in Maryland Saturday - it has thus far not rippled to the supermarket shelf.

March 8, 2004

Bird flu forces killing of poultry

More than 300,000 chickens on Maryland's Eastern Shore were destroyed yesterday to stem a fresh outbreak of avian influenza. The flu has infected birds in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in recent weeks and is threatening the heart of the tri-state Delmarva economy.

March 7, 2004

Avian flu strain discovered at chicken farm on Shore

POCOMOKE CITY -- Avian flu has been found on a commercial chicken farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday.

February 19, 2004

Bird flu's human death toll hits 22

BANGKOK, Thailand - Two 4-year-old boys became the latest victims of the bird flu virus sweeping Asia, bringing the human death toll to 22 yesterday.

February 17, 2004

Testing for bird flu continues; no new cases reported yesterday

Testing continued in the Mid-Atlantic region yesterday for avian influenza, the virus that infected flocks of chickens in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania this month.

February 13, 2004

Unease reaches poultry market

PHILADELPHIA - In South Philadelphia, in between the gleaming new sports stadiums and the gritty Italian street market, is a small brick storefront where a 21-year-old in dirty rubber boots and a dirty smock has got a honey-colored hen by the feet.

February 13, 2004

Del. ponders possible tie to N.Y. fowl

Delaware went another day without a new case of avian influenza, but New Jersey health officials said yesterday that the virus has popped up in four live bird markets there.

February 12, 2004

As Del. continues to test for bird flu, Md. seeks help

Delaware officials said they found no new cases of the potentially devastating avian influenza yesterday - but that was little comfort to farmers in the poultry-intensive Delmarva peninsula, who are isolating themselves in an effort to keep their livelihoods safe.

February 11, 2004

Bird flu outbreak again in Delaware

A second flock of chickens infected with avian influenza was discovered yesterday in Delaware, surprising experts and greatly expanding the economic dangers from the outbreaks.

February 10, 2004

Avian flu in Del. apparently contained

DOVER, Del. - Delmarva chicken farmers appear to have dodged a bullet: Tests released yesterday show no spread of the avian influenza discovered in Delaware on a southern Kent County farm.

February 9, 2004

Avian flu found at Delaware farm

DOVER, Del. - After an outbreak of avian influenza was discovered at a Delaware farm, state authorities have tested several nearby facilities but have not released the results.

February 8, 2004

1918 flu more birdlike than thought

WASHINGTON - The 1918 flu epidemic, which killed 20 million people worldwide, appears to be more birdlike than previously thought, according to findings by U.S. and British researchers that could help explain why it was the deadliest influenza strain ever recorded.

February 5, 2004

With avian flu, an Asian tragedy

PANG THRUK, Thailand - In a village where generations of farmers have raised chickens, people ordinarily might scoff at the idea of remembering one particular rooster.

February 2, 2004

Human transmission of avian flu suspected

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The World Health Organization said yesterday that two sisters who died in Vietnam's Thai Binh province last week were victims of avian influenza and might have contracted the disease from their brother.

January 30, 2004

Taiwan orders slaughter of 27,000 ducks, chickens

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Health officials ordered the killing of thousands of ducks and chickens in central and southern Taiwan yesterday to control the latest outbreak of a bird flu that has swept across Asia, devastating poultry stocks and killing at least 10 people.