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TIMELINE: Bird flu developments
(Reuters) - Foreign donors have pledged $406 million in additional funds for efforts to combat bird flu, but another $800 million is still needed and countries still need to be better prepared for any pandemic, officials said on Thursday.
There have been 207 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain and 336 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to World Health Organisation data.
Here is a chronology of major recent bird flu developments:
February 8, 2006 - First African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are detected in poultry in northern Nigeria.
February 18 - India announces its first cases of H5N1, finding the virus in poultry in a western state.
February 25 - France confirms H5N1 at a farm where thousands of turkeys died, the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the European Union.
September 28 - China shares long-sought-after samples of H5N1 in what many scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation.
February 3, 2007 - WHO confirms bird flu killed a 22-year-old Nigerian woman, its first known human fatality 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.
February 27 - Laos confirms its first human case of bird flu. The patient dies on March 7.
April 17 - The first bird flu vaccine for people wins U.S. approval.
May 22 - WHO agrees to demands from developing countries to revamp its system for sharing flu virus samples. It also says it will work to ensure fair distribution of affordable vaccines.
June 16 - Vietnam says bird flu killed a 20-year-old man, the first death in the country from H5N1 since late 2005.
July 26 - India confirms the latest outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Manipur state in the remote northeast is the H5N1 strain. It is the first case reported in India in a year.
October 4 - A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison says H5N1 has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain.
November 13 - Britain confirms the bird flu outbreak on a turkey farm on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk in east England is the virulent H5N1 strain.
Dec 4 - WHO confirms that a 24-year-old man from Jiangsu province in eastern China has died of H5N1. It is China's first case since June. Of the 26 cases confirmed to date in China, 17 have been fatal.
Dec 6 - Donors at a summit of experts on bird flu pledge $406 million in additional funds for efforts to combat the virus.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
