Growing H5N1 Clusters in Egypt Raise Pandemic Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary 01:20
January 2, 2008
Detained Hospital pathogenesis Mahala [Mahallah] two new cases of suspected bird flu disease injured and the two decimal [name doesn't translate] "34 years" policeman. The child, Huda Khaled "a year and a half."
Received hospital pathogenesis Beni Suef Anwar Ali Sayyad 25 years
The above translations define two more geographical clusters of confirmed or suspect H5N1 cases in Egypt. Two suspect cases have been hospitalized in Mahalla in Gharbiya, while a new suspect case was in Beni Suef, the location of the first confirmed case this season.
It addition to the two geographical clusters above, there is a large cluster in Menoufia, which contains one familial and two geographic clusters. There is also a familial suspect cluster in Port Said (see satellite map).
All of these clusters have developed in the past week, raising concerns that the H5N1 circulating in Egypt is transmitting more efficiently than H5N1 in prior outbreaks in Egypt. Thus far, the fatalities have been concentrated in the confirmed cases, where four of the five have died. Although there is only one fatality among the suspect cases, most were hospitalized in the past few days, so they haven’t been lab confirmed, and more time is needed to determine if they are positive and / or fatally infected.
More information should be forthcoming in the next several days, but Egypt has already issued an alert and begun dispensing Tamiflu.
More information on lab tests and sequences from the confirmed cases would be useful.
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