Indonesian health officials say they are hopeful a new international agreement will be reached next week over the sharing of bird flu samples for vaccine research. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta, where Indonesia's 75th human death from bird flu has just been announced.

Scientists here have designed a new, interactive map of the spread of the avian flu virus (H5N1) that for the first time incorporates genetic, geographic and evolutionary information that may help predict where the next outbreak of the virus is likely to occur.

China is preparing to send the latest samples of human bird flu virus to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said Thursday. The announcement came days after the WHO complained China was not sharing samples of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus since May 2006 even after several requests.

For avian influenza, the analyses show that there are two poultry-dense areas in The Netherlands where epidemic spread is possible, one in the central region and one in the south, close to the German and Belgian border (see attached figure). The authors suggest local control measures are unlikely to be able to halt an unfolding epidemic in these areas.

A leading Australian virologist is calling for a bird flu drug to be made available over the counter, claiming it could have already saved the lives of hundreds of sufferers. Professor Graeme Laver from the Australian National University says Tamiflu is being stockpiled by governments across Australia in case of a bird flu pandemic.

An experimental flu vaccine made in insect cells - not in eggs, where flu vaccines currently available in the United States are grown - is safe and as effective as conventional vaccines in protecting people against the flu, according to results published in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A 13-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, bringing to seven the number of people in the country who have died from the virus. The World Health Organization and Cambodian Health Ministry have confirmed that the girl was infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The World Health Organization has conducted a test of their ability to avert a bird-flu pandemic. Monday's drill involved officials at the WHO's Western Pacific regional headquarters in Manila talking by phone with counterparts in Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan.

How is virus as for example HIV and bird flu able to make the cells within a human body work for the purpose of the virus? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen shed new light on this question.

A review to be published shortly in the British Ornithologists' Union's journal, Ibis, critically examines the arguments concerning the role of migratory birds in the global dispersal of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1.