H5n1

MOSCOW - A strain of avian influenza virus that can be lethal to humans has spread from Southeast Asia to poultry flocks in Russia and Kazakhstan, a scientific journal reported yesterday, leading a British researcher to warn that the virus may be approaching Europe. "If we are seeing an expansion in range, that is something we should be concerned about," Ian Brown, head of avian virology at the United Kingdom Veterinary Laboratories Agency, told the journal Nature in an article published yesterday on its Web site.

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 . The vaccine is designed to prevent a flu strain known officially as H5N1, which jumped from birds to humans after it was first identified in Hong Kong in 1997. Since then, there have been at least 69 confirmed cases and 46 deaths, none in the United States. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told microbiologists gathered in Baltimore yesterday that the government has stockpiled the equivalent of 2 million doses of the untested H5N1 vaccine at a cost of $13 million in case of an outbreak here or overseas.

The avian influenza virus that has spread widely among poultry and other birds in Southeast Asia and infected some people there has also crossed another species barrier to infect cats, and can be spread among them as well, Dutch scientists have found. The finding is "extraordinary because domestic cats are generally considered to be resistant to disease from influenza A virus infection," like that of the avian strain, the researchers are reporting in today's issue of the journal Science.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai officials announced yesterday that two boys had become infected with avian influenza and that six more people were suspected of having it. The acknowledgment confirms that the deadly disease has now spread across Southeast Asia, and it raised fears among doctors of a possible global influenza epidemic if the virus evolves to pass easily from person to person, instead of just from contact with infected birds. Vietnam has reported five confirmed cases in people near Hanoi, all of whom died before the lab tests were even finished, and is testing seven additional suspected cases across the country.

HONG KONG - A dead peregrine falcon found near two chicken farms here had the avian influenza virus, agricultural officials said yesterday. The falcon is the first sign that the disease spreading in chicken flocks in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan might also be present in China. Hong Kong said it would respond by stepping up the monitoring of chicken farms for the disease, with inspections continuing through the Chinese New Year beginning today. World Health Organization officials have been very alarmed about the spread of the influenza virus, the A(H5N1)

HONG KONG - Health officials announced yesterday that tests had confirmed more cases of Asia's twin health threats this winter, bird flu and SARS. China said two people previously categorized as suspected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome had been reclassified as confirmed cases. Vietnam said four more people had fallen ill with the H5N1 strain of flu spreading through Asian poultry. World Health Organization officials said they had not confirmed either the additional Vietnamese bird flu cases or the reclassified Chinese SARS cases, and needed more information.

HONG KONG -- In late March, chickens began dying on three small poultry farms in Hong Kong's outlying New Territories.Microbiologists determined that the 4,500 dead birds in tiny Lau Fau Shan village succumbed to a particularly virulent strain of avian influenza. Described by one leading American virologist as "chicken Ebola," the virus spreads swiftly, attacks all the cells in the infected bird's body and is nearly always fatal.On May 11, a 3-year-old boy was hospitalized here with typical flu symptoms -- acute fever, sore throat and raspy cough.