Bird flu outbreak ‘unlikely’ (China Daily) The country should be able to prevent the spread of bird flu, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Thursday. A large-scale outbreak of avian flu won't take place in the near future, despite some areas being very vulnerable, the MOA said in a statement. [News Source]

Large-scale bird flu epidemic unlikely (China Economic Net) The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) believes China won't have many problems preventing the spread of bird flu despite certain risks. "Large-scale outbreaks of avian flu won't happen in a certain period but potential dangers still exist in some areas," the MOA said in a statement issued Thursday. [News Source]

Vietnam bird flu patient’s sister had same symptoms. The sister of Vietnam's first confirmed bird flu patient of the year died with similar symptoms last week and the director of the hospital where she was treated said she probably also had avian flu. [News Source]

Drugs’ effect on bird flu doubted. Antiviral drugs used to treat the human flu aren't likely to hold off a pandemic outbreak of bird flu because of the virus' ability to mutate, new research suggests. [News Source]

China alert over bird flu death. China has issued an alert against bird flu following the death of a 19-year-old woman from the disease. The woman died after she came into contact with poultry in a market in central Hebei province. [News Source]

GPs flu pandemic workload warning. GP surgeries have been told to prepare for seeing nearly 200 extra patients a week in the event of a flu pandemic. [News Source]

Avian Flu Becoming More Resistant To Antiviral Drugs, Says University Of Colorado Study (Medical News Today) A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows the resistance of the avian flu virus to a major class of antiviral drugs is increasing through positive evolutionary selection, with researchers documenting the trend in more than 30 percent of the samples tested. [News Source]

Vietnam bird flu patient’s sister had same symptoms (Reuters via Yahoo! News) The sister of Vietnam's first confirmed bird flu patient of the year died with similar symptoms last week and the director of the hospital where she was treated said she probably also had avian flu. [News Source]

No other bird flu cases detected in Beijing (CTV.ca) China says no other cases of bird flu have been detected in Beijing and neighbouring provinces after a woman died from the avian influenza in the capital. [News Source]

Excess use makes bird flu drug futile (The Times of India) WASHINGTON: Overuse of cheap and popular drugs like Tamiflu may make the avian flu virus resistant to it. Scientists in the US have warned against their use after their failure to stop the flu virus in Asia. [News Source]

RP government conducts exercise to prevent, be ready against bird flu By Penaflor Sapnu (Philippine News Agency) ANGELES CITY, Jan. 08 (PNA) -– Not a single instance of bird flu or avian influenza (AI)has ever been recorded or confirmed in the Philippines but the Philippine government does not want to take a gambit just to keep the dreaded fowl disease out of the country. [News Source]

Vietnam bird flu patient’s sister had same symptoms (Reuters via Yahoo!Xtra News) HANOI (Reuters) - The sister of Vietnam's first confirmed bird flu patient of the year died with similar symptoms last week and the director of the hospital where she was treated said she probably also had avian flu. [News Source]