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"First identified in humans in Hong Kong, influenza A/H5N1, known commonly as avian influenza, has caused human disease in 15 countries around the world. Although the current number of confirmed patients is tiny compared to seasonal and the recently emerged H1N1 swine influenza, H5N1 remains a candidate for the next highly pathogenic influenza pandemic. Currently, H5N1 has very limited ability to spread from person-to-person but this may change because of mutation or reassortment with other influenza viruses leading to an influenza pandemic with high mortality. If this occurs travellers are likely to be affected and travel medicine doctors will need to consider avian influenza in returning febrile travel-lers. The early clinical features may be dismissed easily as the flu resulting in delayed treat-ment. Treatment options are limited. Oral oseltamivir alone has been the most commonly used drug but mortality remains substantial, up to 80% in Indonesia. Intravenous peramivir has been filed for registration and IV zanamivir is being developed. This review will focus on the epide-miological and clinical features of influenza A/H5N1 avian influenza and will highlight aspects relevant to travel medicine doctors."

"Background and objective: Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem and the prevalence is high in many Asian countries.Methods: A prospective observational study of the prevalence of bacterial pathogens and their antimicro-bial susceptibilities in patients with acute exacerba-tions of chronic bronchitis (AECB) was conducted in Indonesia, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong from August 2006 to April 2008. The diagnosis of AECB was based on increased cough and worsening of two of following: dyspnoea, increased sputum volume or purulence. Patients who had taken antibiotics within 72 h of presentation were excluded. All bacterial strains were submitted to a central labo-ratory for re-identification and antimicrobial suscepti-bility testing to 16 antimicrobial agents according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.Results: Four hundred and seven isolates were iden-tified among 447 patients of AECB. The most frequent organisms isolated were Klebsiella pneumoniae and associated species (n = 91 + 17), Haemophilus influen-zae (n = 71), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 63), Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 32), Acinetobacter baumannii (n = 22) and Moraxella catarrhalis (n = 21). According to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Insti-tute susceptibility breakpoints, 85.7% and >90% of these pathogens were susceptible to levofloxacin and cefepime respectively. Other options with overall lower susceptibilities include imipenem, ceftazidime, ceftri-axone and amoxicillin/clavulanate.Conclusions: Gram-negative bacteria including Kleb-siella spp., P. aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp. consti-tute a large proportion of pathogens identified in patients with AECB in some Asian countries. Surveil-lance on the local prevalence and antibiotic resistance of these organisms is important in guiding appropriate choice of antimicrobials in the management of AECB."