The British and Belgian scientists have developed a new vaccine called ACAM-FLU-A that is claimed to provide long-term protection against everything from winter illness to deadly bird flu. The scientists have been expressing a grave concern over the potential pandemic of the human form of Bird flu that is capable of killing around fifty million people worldwide.

Developed by Acambis the ACAM-FLU-A boasts of protecting against all strains of influenza A that is supposed to be the root cause of pandemics. The latest vaccine is aimed at a diverse area of the virus, a protein named M2e that has no change in a century. Because M2e has never been targeted before, Dr. Breschkin warned it was not known if the protein would mutate if a vaccine was brought in to it

Another victim of the deadly bird flu virus died in Egypt Sunday, bringing to 17 the total death toll in the country.

The state-run MENA news agency reports that 25-year-old Egyptian woman, who earlier tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, succumbed to the fatal strain three days after she was admitted to the hospital

China remains baffled on how the bird flu virus was transmitted between its latest victims.

This as the surviving patient, surnamed Lu, 52, was discharged from an undisclosed local hospital on Dec. 26, state-run Xinhua news agency reports

Myanmar is closely monitoring a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus among chickens in a village near the Myanmar-Thai border.

State-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Saturday that there have been numerous deaths of domestic chicken in a village in eastern Shan State's Mongphyat township, some 31 miles from the border

A four-year-old boy became the latest casualty of bird flu in Vietnam, bringing to five the number of people to have died from the avian virus this year in the region, health ministry officials in Vietnam confirmed Thursday.

Tran Hung, Vietnam's health ministry administrative office director said, "He tested positive to the H5N1 virus late last week. It is the first human case of H5N1 in about four months in Vietnam