Australian firm gets flu-test orders

Via Ninemsn.com in Australia: Rockeby gets orders for bird flu tests. Excerpt:

Rockeby Biomed Ltd has received orders for its H5N1 bird flu tests on humans from several South East Asian, European, and North African countries, worth $242,000, the company says.

Rockeby chief executive Dr Sze-Wee Tan said the tests had been delivered or were about to the delivered over the next few weeks.

"We are pleased to continue to be recognised by governments around the globe for supplying a cost-effective and reliable form of monitoring of bird flu," Dr Tan said.

Rockeby received its first tender for the test from Jordan in April.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu, one of the most deadly types on poultry and birds, originated in Asia in 2003 spreading to the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Turkey and Europe.

There have been 243 human deaths - 110 in Indonesia - from H5N1 since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation's website.

South Korea has been hit by bird flu outbreaks three times, although no person has contracted the disease.

Rockeby said also that it had withdrawn from its January 31 non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the supply of bird flu tests with an undisclosed South East Asian country, citing failure of payment.

That's an interesting tidbit at the end of the excerpt.