U.S. President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday for $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare the United States for a pandemic of avian influenza, Reuters reported. The total includes requests of $1.2 billion to make 20 million doses of the current vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza, $2.8 billion to accelerate new flu vaccine technology and $1 billion to stockpile more antiviral drugs.
