2006 to 2007 Bird flu CHRONOLOGY

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CHRONOLOGY-Bird flu developments

Tue 27 Mar 2007, 14:51 GMT

March 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia agreed on Tuesday to resume sending

virus samples to the World Health Organisation which sealed a pact

with developing nations over access to bird flu vaccines.

Here is a brief chronology of major bird flu developments in the past

year:

Feb. 8, 2006 - The first African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are

detected in poultry in the northern Nigerian states of Kano, Kaduna

and Plateau.

Feb. 17 - Egypt finds its first cases of H5N1 in chickens.

Feb. 18 - India announces its first cases of H5N1, finding the virus

in poultry in a western state.

Feb. 25 - France confirms H5N1 at a farm in the east where thousands

of turkeys have died. It is the first case of the virus in domestic

farm birds in the EU.

Aug. 8 - China says its first H5N1 human case was in 2003, not in 2005

as it had originally reported.

Sept. 28 - China shares long-sought-after samples of H5N1 in what many

scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation.

Dec. 8 - Foreign donors pledge an additional $476 million for the

global fight against the virus at a meeting in Mali.

Dec. 21 - South Korea confirms a fourth case of bird flu in poultry.

In November, it had confirmed its first case of H5N1 in about three years.

Jan. 9, 2007 - China says a farmer from the eastern province of Anhui

contracted H5N1 in December, the country's first human case in months.

He was released from hospital on Jan. 6.

Jan. 15 - Thailand reports its first outbreak of H5N1 in six months in

ducks in the northern province of Phitsanulok.

Jan. 16 - Japan confirms its first outbreak of H5N1 in three years, in

poultry in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki. Three further

outbreaks in poultry are confirmed by Feb. 3.

Jan. 24 - Thousands of birds are culled after an outbreak among geese

on a farm in Hungary.

Feb. 3 - WHO confirms bird flu has killed a 22-year-old Nigerian

woman, making her the first known human fatality of the H5N1 virus in

sub-Saharan Africa.

-- H5N1 is found to have killed 2,500 turkeys on a farm in southeast

England, the first outbreak in British poultry.

Feb. 27 - Laos confirms its first human case of bird flu. The patient

dies on March 7.

March 27 - WHO establishes mechanism for developing countries to have

fair access to bird flu vaccines. Indonesia also agrees to resume

sending virus samples to the WHO.

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL27236299.html