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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

CIDRAP - NEWS SCAN: H5N1 in Vietnam, tainted-food penalty bill, Haiti cholera decline, Tajik polio drive, dengue-favorable weather

News Scan from CIDRAP, these are only excerpts, please go to the actual site for the links :

" Vietnam reports 7 avian flu outbreaks
Seven H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks occurred in poultry flocks in villages scattered among five provinces of Vietnam in late March and early April, the Vietnamese agriculture ministry reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) yesterday.

Senate passes bill to raise penalties for selling contaminated food
The Senate last week passed a bill that would increase penalties for those who knowingly distribute contaminated or misbranded food. Written by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the bill would upgrade such offenses from a misdemeanor to a felony and authorize prosecutors to seek prison terms of up to 10 years.

Cholera cases continue to decline in Haiti
Cholera cases continue to decline in Haiti except in a couple of areas, and activity in cholera treatment centers is slowing, according to an update released yesterday by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Only Nippes department and the Leogane-Gressier region of West department reported an increased rate of cases in the update, which included data as of Apr 4.

Tajikistan launches polio vaccination campaign
Health workers in Tajikistan yesterday launched a 5-day polio vaccination campaign with the goal of immunizing nearly 1.1 million children under age 5, according to Asia-Plus, a news organization based in the capital, Dushanbe, reported today.

Size of daily temperature range may affect dengue risk
An international team of researchers is reporting experimental evidence that one factor affecting dengue virus transmission is the extent of daily temperature fluctuations. The researchers found that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are less likely to transmit the virus when the daily temperature range is large (20ºC) than when it is small (10ºC)."

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