H5N1

A man in southwest China died of bird flu on Sunday after three days of intensive care treatment in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry of Health as saying.

Researchers studying a potentially more lethal, airborne version of the bird-flu virus have suspended their studies because of concerns the mutant virus they have created could be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism or accidentally escape the lab.

The H5N1 strain of the flu is extremely dangerous, killing up to 60 percent of people who contract it.

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

Two teams of researchers, involved in the creation of a modified version of the contagious H5N1 virus (an act funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, according to The Independent) have been asked by the administration to withhold key information to prevent potential bio-weapon threats.

Workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong on Wednesday after a dead chicken there tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian virus, a government spokesman said.

Two surveys released Wednesday concludes that poultry workers in China still need H5N1 avian flu education and that people in China have changed their eating habits in response to bird flu.

According to a new research paper published in the November Journal of Virology, vaccinating children annually against influenza virus could interfere with their development of cross-reactive killer T cells to flu viruses.

Scientists are scrambling to develop a universal flu vaccine that will protect against all strains of influenza. Some pharmaceutical companies say that vaccine could be available as soon as 2014.

Authorities in eastern India will start culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain a new outbreak of H5 bird flu, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, as a mutant strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere in Asia.

An outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) has been confirmed in West Bengal, India as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh races to coordinate preventative measures.

A new outbreak of the H5 strain of avian influenza (bird flu) has surfaced in West Bengal, India.

Public health officials are warning that bird flu once again poses a growing threat, as the virus spreads across parts of Asia and has developed a dangerous new mutation.

There's evidence that avian flu is mounting a comeback.

A rise in the number of reported cases of avian flu, coupled with the appearance of a mutation that could be resistant to vaccines, has led the United Nations to warn of a potential bird flu resurgence.

British scientists have developed genetically modified (GM) chickens that cannot transmit bird flu infections -- a step that in future could reduce the risk of avian flu spreading and causing deadly epidemics in humans.