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Birds return to Europe without virus. The flocks of migratory birds that winged their way south to Africa last autumn and then back over Europe in recent weeks did not carry the H5N1 bird flu virus or spread it during their annual journey, scientists have concluded, defying health officials' dire predictions. International health officials had feared that the disease was likely to spread to Africa during the winter migration and return to Europe with a vengeance during the reverse migration this spring. That has not happened a significant finding for Europe, because it is far easier to monitor a virus...

University of Washington scientists plan to infect monkeys with a killer flu virus grown from tissue exhumed from victims of the 1918 epidemic. They hope the insight they gain will unravel the mystery of why tens of millions of people worldwide died from the virulent flu strain and lead to development of better vaccines and drugs that may save lives in the future. "This was the most deadly infectious disease in the history of mankind, killing at least 40 million people," said Dr. Michael Katze, a UW microbiologist and principal investigator for the local arm of the project. "To this...

International health experts are hunting for the virus that causes SARS, the flu-like disease that has killed 61 people worldwide and infected at least one in Germany. The first case of the flu-like disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was confirmed in Germany on Tuesday. A 72-year-old man who recently traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam and Singapore was diagnosed as having the illness by the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. [Clinic in Hemer near Iserlohn in North-rhine Westphalia. ] The man is being treated at a clinic in the town of Hemer in southwestern Germany (photo). He is...

Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand Treat Killer Virus Like Bio-Weapon There were many breaking stories about the mystery killer flu virus this past weekend. NewsPundit made the decision to sit tight and to wait before we posted more reports about this major Asian flu virus. Many reports in the international press today read like rehashes of earlier reports. But we noticed over the weekend that many news agencies and their reporters were logging on to NewsPundit to read our unique take on this new killer pneumonia bug. The disease is spreading worldwide much faster than expected. While...

Killer Flu Bug: New Chinese "Biological Weapon" Rumors are Again Hot News on the InternetA NewsPundit Exclusive Report:There have been several rather grave news reports in the past two days about this new killer flu that originated in China. These disturbing news reports are again spreading rumors on the Internet about possible Chinese bio-weapons. The new rumors are based partly on the rapid worldwide spread of this killer virus and the difficulty in treating the disease. Other factors: are the rapid calls for emergency quarantine of infected persons and the announcement that international airports will be forced to screen...

Ninth person dies of mystery disease as WHO warns world heath threat spread by air travel By MARGIE MASON HANOI, Vietnam (AP): A ninth person has died of a mystery form of pneumonia that the World Health Organization says cannot be stopped by standard drugs and is being spread across the globe by international air travelers. In a rare emergency warning, Geneva-based WHO described the fast-acting, highly contagious disease as "a worldwide health threat.'' It first struck China's southern Guangdong province in January when five people died. In recent days about 150 infections had been reported in Asia, Europe and...