The predicted toll of a year of “modest” bird flu and influenza pandemic -

A billion people infected

Two to seven million killed

$200 billion lost in global economy

So says Jean-Marc Olive, a representative of the World Health Organization to the Philippines this week. The estimates were taken using models based on previous flu epidemics. Estimates last December placed the death toll at 62 million worldwide .

“There is a window of opportunity to prepare for rapid response and containment, and for a worse-case scenario,” Olive said, adding that the culling of the entire poultry population in Hong Kong in 1997 after H5N1 virus …read more

US President George W. Bush is in Vietnam’s Pasteur Institute to pledge U.S. support toward Southeast Asian’s preparations for a flu pandemic.
President Bush’s first trip to the communist country is part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum held in Hanoi. That the 21-member Coop met in Vietnam is a positive signal to the country’s successful fight against the bird flu that ravaged since 2003. The virus has killed more 42 people in Vietnam since 2003, but have virtually been undetected this year. Vietnam’s success is largely credited to a nationwide poultry vaccination campaign and strong political will to root …read more

This weekend, drug developer BioCryst Pharamceuticals Inc. will be releasing positive results on its research on an influenza drug. With that announcement, shares jumped 90 cents, or 7.1 per cent to reach $12.16 on the Nasdaq’a morning trading.
The drug peramivir is in its preclinical testing as a potent neuraminidase inhibitor, which acts to prevent the spread of influenza virus within the host. The company will present its findings at the 46th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco, California on Saturday, September 30, with a poster titled “Injectable Peramivir Promotes Survival in Mice and Ferrets …read more