Following reports of the third confirmed death related to the novel A(H1N1) virus as a result of an ineffective rapid influenza diagnostic test, health authorities yesterday said that in future, provided that symptoms are present, the antiviral drug Tamiflu should be prescribed whether or not results come back negative.

Approximately 200 students attending Feng Chia University are vomiting and suffering from diarrhea, believed to be caused by a highly transmissible virus, Taichung's Public Bureau of Health (PBH) said yesterday.

A unique strain of swine flu is the suspected killer of dozens of people in Mexico, where authorities closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in the capital on Friday to try to contain an outbreak that has spurred concerns of a global flu epidemic.

A six-year-old Egyptian boy has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the 24th human fatality of the disease in Egypt, state news agency MENA said on Tuesday.

Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have identified a synthetic compound which appears to be able to stop the replication of influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus.

A locally developed emergency vaccine against the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain is expected to be ready for clinical trial in the second half of this year, a senior Department of Health (DOH) official said.

A probe into an outbreak of bird flu at a Hong Kong chicken farm and carcasses popping up in city waters have raised questions over whether the H5N1 virus is going undetected in southern China.

Four Indonesians have died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country hardest hit by the disease to 119, an official said Tuesday.

Birds from a second quail farm in the central Japanese city of Toyohashi tested positive for the highly pathogenic H7N6 strain of bird flu, the local government said Monday.

The Philippine government will slaughter 6,000 pigs on a farm near Manila where the Ebola-Reston virus has been found in the animals and its antibodies in humans, health officials said Friday.