Sumatra Bird Flu Case Spread by Human Contact, Indonesia Says (Bloomberg.com) June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Human-to-human transmission is the most likely cause of bird flu last month in seven members of a family living on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, the country's Ministry of Health said. [News Source]

Aussie OKs aid for RP campaign vs avian flu, disasters (ABS-CBNNEWS.com) The Australian Embassy on Thursday approved a A$5.4-million aid package for the Philippines programs to fight the outbreak of avian influenza and to strengthen its disaster preparedness programs. [News Source]

State to begin testing birds for avian flu (Boston Globe) Massachusetts will start sampling wild birds this week for the deadly strain of avian flu known as H5N1. The state, which has sampled commercial birds for other strains of bird flu for decades, will be collecting up to 400 samples targeting resident Canada geese, migrating mallards, long tail ducks, and common eiders. The sampling is part of a nationwide effort ... [News Source]

Risk To Bathers From H5N1 Bird Flu Is Close To Zero (Medical News Today) An assessment issued today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) concludes that the risk of catching H5N1 avian influenza from bathing in Europe's lakes, rivers and seas this summer is close to zero. [click link for full article] [News Source]

Malaysia Is Now Free From Bird Flu (Bernama) PUTRAJAYA, June 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has been declared free from the bird flu, or Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus, which resurfaced early this year after it was successfully eradicated last year. [News Source]

Bird flu may have been mistaken for SARS (Reuters via Yahoo! News) A Chinese man who died of pneumonia in 2003 and was at first classified as a SARS victim might have in fact died of avian influenza, Chinese researchers reported on Wednesday. [News Source]

China had bird flu case in ‘03, letter says. Editors at The New England Journal of Medicine say they are investigating a letter about avian flu that its Chinese authors apparently tried to withdraw before publication. [News Source]

Bird flu may have been mistaken for SARS. A Chinese man who died of pneumonia in 2003 and was at first classified as a SARS victim may have in fact died of avian influenza. [News Source]

Scientists want bird flu report withdrawn. Chinese scientists said Wednesday that a man initially thought to have SARS actually died of bird flu in November 2003 — two years before the communist country reported any human bird flu infections on the mainland to the World Health Organization. [News Source]

Heart drugs might provide birdflu weapon. The world's top-selling drugs, cholesterol-lowering statins, might provide a way to treat feared bird flu. [News Source]

West Nile found in Utah County. The potentially deadly West Nile virus was found in a batch of mosquitoes last week in southern Utah County, about six weeks earlier than it was detected last year, according to the county health department. [News Source]

U.N. expert talks of bird flu, world health. Chances are good that the next great human influenza pandemic will begin in Asia, just as SARS and the current epidemic of bird flu appears to have done. [News Source]