Please note there is new information almost daily. For the most current and accurate information, visit http://www.pandemicflu.gov, and look under the heading "Monitoring Outbreaks". The USGS site is very helpful in tracking current wildlife outbreaks and news stories. The WHO site gives the most current and accurate lab confirmed human case and human death totals.
Current human death rate from the H5N1 strain is 58.4% (253 cases, 148 deaths). One of the newer cases is from the East Java province in Indonesia. She is the 21 year old sister of a confirmed human case who died earlier in September. This current case remains hospitalized and the source of infection is being investigated. The home was known to have diseased poultry. Of the 69 human cases in Indonesia, 52 have been fatal.
The other case is a 39 year old woman from Egypt. This is the first human case in Egypt since May. The case was slaughtering and defeathering ducks once the flock appeared to be sick and dying. The human case developed symptoms September 30 and continues to be hospitalized, but in stable condition.
On October 6, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) United Nations announced that the latest sequencing tests performed on the H5N1 virus circulating Indonesia revealed that there have been no significant mutations in the virus. They studied more than 49 virus isolates from various regions of Indonesia.
Thai scientists have reported a case of H5N1 influenza infection in a dog, a finding that lengthens the unusually long list of mammals this avian flu virus can infect. The report, which suggests the dog became infected by eating ducks killed by the virus, also underscores a need to figure out whether the virus can be transmitted through consumption of infected animals, a World Health Organization scientist said Wednesday. The case of the dog, reported in the November issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, actually occurred in October 2004. Scientists and people who follow H5N1 developments on Internet blogs and websites were aware of it, but this article by scientists from Thailand's Kasetsart and Chulalongkorn universities is the first scientific publication showing canine infection with the virus.---Canadian Press, 10/11/06, http://www.theglobeandmail.com.
WHO Laboratory Confirmed H5N1 Human Cases As of 10/11/06
| Country | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Total | |||||
| cases | deaths | cases | deaths | cases | deaths | cases | deaths | cases | deaths | |
| Azerbaijan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 5 |
| Cambodia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| China | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 8 | 21 | 14 |
| Djibouti | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Egypt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 15 | 6 |
| Indonesia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 12 | 49 | 40 | 69 | 52 |
| Iraq | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Thailand | 0 | 0 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 25 | 17 |
| Turkey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 4 |
| Viet Nam | 3 | 3 | 29 | 20 | 61 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 42 |
| Total | 4 | 4 | 46 | 32 | 97 | 42 | 99 | 70 | 253 | 148 |
Total number of cases includes number of deaths.
WHO reports only laboratory-confirmed cases.