Avian Flu

"Shown to inhibit and prevent infection of Bird Flu Virus," claimed the website of Long Beach-based PRB Pharmaceuticals Inc. about its drug Vira 38. "Guard Yourself Against The Deadly Avian Flu Now!" advised Vitacost.com Inc. of Boynton Beach, Fla., regarding its supplements. "The Body's First Line of Defense Against The Avian Flu -- As Seen on TV!!" trumpeted Bodestore.com about Lingoji, which is made from mushrooms and berries. It's been a banner season for unproven influenza remedies.

The U.S. is making progress in preparations for a bird flu pandemic, including measures to close schools and quarantine the sick, but vaccine supplies remain inadequate, a top health official said. "We've got a lot of work to do," said Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing "bottlenecks" in vaccine production. "We've got to get more and better antiviral drugs.

A brother and sister have died of bird flu in eastern Turkey, becoming the first fatalities outside China and Southeast Asia, officials said. Fatma Kocyigit, 15, and Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, died one day apart. The H5N1 virus has killed more than 70 people in Asia since 2003. Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said samples had been sent to the WHO and Britain for more tests.

Bird flu was suspected in the death of an 11-year-old girl in Turkey, whose older brother and sister died in the last two days. Their doctor said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens. The newspaper Sabah said the children had tossed the chickens' heads like balls inside their house in Dogubayazit, near the Iranian border.

Seeking to reassure people that chicken is safe to eat, companies that raise chickens said Thursday that they would test every flock for bird flu before the birds are slaughtered. Companies that account for more than 90% of the nearly 10 billion chickens produced in 2005 in the U.S. have signed up for the testing program and said more were expected to follow, according to the National Chicken Council, a trade group that represents producers.

Three Turks tested positive for a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital Sunday, a new stage in the sweep of the disease westward from Asia. The first case of the virus jumping from birds to humans outside China and Southeast Asia was reported last week in rural eastern Turkey, where three children from the same family died after contracting the potent H5N1 strain of the flu. Doctors confirmed that two children and a 60-year-old man were being treated in Ankara for the virus.

Beneath a dim morning sky, Jonathan Runstadler trudged across the ice with a long fiberglass tube, some gardening tools and a smattering of plastic lab bottles. Months earlier, summer breezes had carried wild birds from Asia to this little pond. Now, with the temperature hovering at 9 degrees, Runstadler bored through the frozen surface in search of the seeds of a pandemic.

Turkey said a fourth person had died of avian flu, and authorities slaughtered tens of thousands of birds to try to contain the outbreak. The World Health Organization confirmed that Fatma Ozcan died Sunday of H5N1. Ozcan, believed to be in her teens, came from the eastern town of Dogubayazit, also home to the three other children who died.

Two children from the same family died of bird flu, the World Health Organization has confirmed, bringing Indonesia's toll from the virus to 14, the government said. The children's father and a sister also have been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu, Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono said. The 4-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister died this month, but the government was waiting for confirmation from tests at a WHO-sanctioned lab in Hong Kong, Wibisono said.

The San Diego Zoo is preparing to spend at least $500,000 to protect its 3,000 birds, some of which are very rare and found only in captivity, from avian flu. Officials say past threats, such as exotic Newcastle disease three years ago, have prepared them for the steps to take -- including vaccinating and possibly quarantining birds, and spraying delivery truck undercarriages with disinfectant -- if bird flu reaches the U.S.