Indonesia confirms its 42nd human bird flu death, bringing it level with Vietnam as the nation worst hit by the virus.

AFP - JAKARTA - A 44-year-old Indonesian has died of bird flu, the health ministry said.

AP - A 44-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia, a senior health official said Sunday, putting the country on the cusp of being the world's hardest hit by the disease.

New research shows that the H5N1 avian flu virus multiplies several times as it's passed down through generations of people. Scientists studied a case in which at least seven members of one Indonesian family became infected.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning African nations against the rapid spread of the avian flu. The FAO issued a statement explaining, "it is spreading in Africa where it is likely to become endemic in several countries."...

AFP - Indonesia confirmed its 41st death from bird flu after tests by a World Health Organization-affilia­ted laboratory showed a three-year-old girl had died of the virus.

Indonesian officials on Friday confirmed another bird flu death, raising the country's death toll from the disease to 41. Authorities said a three-year-old girl who died in a Jakarta hospital on July 6 was a victim of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus....

Reuters - A three-year-old Indonesian girl who died this month has tested positive for bird flu according to tests by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a health ministry official said on Friday.

AP - International tests confirmed the death of a 3-year-old girl from bird flu, bringing the number of people killed by the disease in Indonesia to at least 41, a health official said Friday.

AFP - London's mayor Ken Livingstone has published plans to ensure essential services in the capital keep running in the event of a bird flu pandemic.

A Chinese farmer who reported bird flu outbreak to the government was sentenced to close to 4 years in jail on Tuesday. The Chinese court found the farmer guilty of fraud and blackmail.

PowderMed will soon begin the first human clinical tests of its needle-free vaccine for the avian flu. The U.K. biotech company hopes its vaccine can prevent a patient from contracting the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, which health experts say has killed 131 people since 2003 alone....

Vietnam is set to lift its ban on raising ducks since no reports of bird flu have been reported since December. The ban was slated until February 2007, but many farmers still insisted on raising ducks.

AFP - Indonesia is on track to record the world's highest number of fatalities from bird flu, after health officials confirmed that a five-year-old boy was the country's 40th victim of the virus.

Indonesia confirms its 40th human bird flu death, taking it close to overtaking Vietnam as the world's bird flu nexus.

South African authorities confirm the detection of the bird flu in an ostrich farm. Health officials say animals at the farm contracted a benign strain of the avian flu only two years after an outbreak swept across the country and prompted a ban on imports to the European Union....

Reuters - A World Health Organization laboratory test has confirmed a 5-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month was infected with bird flu, a health ministry official said on Monday.

AP - China has suffered a new outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry, a news report said Saturday, as experts tried to determine whether a Chinese man died of the disease in 2003, two years before the country reported any human cases.

AP - The United States dipped into its stockpile of Tamiflu and sent an undisclosed amount of the antiviral medicine to a secure location in Asia, where it could be used to help contain a potential global flu pandemic, according to a new report from Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

AP - China's Health Ministry is investigating whether a man initially thought to have SARS actually died of bird flu in 2003, two years before Beijing reported its first human case of the disease, the World Health Organization said Friday.