On Thursday, China announces the spread of bird flu to a far western region. The Nov. 17 outbreak reportedly killed 11 birds and prompted the slaughter of 5,180 more.

News of the outbreak, reported by the Xinhua News Agency, comes one day after the country confirmed its second human death from bird flu

Governement officials confirm a 48-year-old man died of bird flu in Thailand after eating a neighbor's infected chickens smuggled in from China.

More than 60 people have died of Avian flu since late 2003, all of them in Asia. This fatality is the first in Thailand in about a year. Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, but health officials warn the virus could mutate into a form that can be easily passed between humans, possibly triggering a global pandemic

The dengue virus-carrying Aedes mosquito is adapting to urbanized human environments and traditional methods used in most Asian countries to control their breeding, making it more diffcult to control.

Dr. Duane Gubler, director at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Diseases in Hawaii says, "It's a global pandemic. It's quite clear that the disease...has evolved. There just is more dengue in the world

The dengue virus-carrying Aedes mosquito has adapted to urbanized human environments and traditional methods used in most Asian countries to control their breeding, making it more diffcult to control its spread.

"It's a global pandemic," says Dr. Duane Gubler, director at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Diseases in Hawaii. "It's quite clear that the disease...has evolved. There just is more dengue in the world

Japanese encephalitis claims another 25 lives in India, raising the death toll in South Asia to 1,243 over the last six months, but doctors say new infections are decreasing as monsoon rains ease up, causing fewer puddles for disease-carrying mosquitos to breed in.

About 400 people, mostly children, are being treated for the disease in various hospitals across Uttar Pradesh, the worst hit Indian state where at least 907 deaths have been reported in the region's worst outbreak in decades, says Vijay Shankar Nigam, head of the state's communicable disease department