Commentary
H5N1
Confirmed Case in Cairo Suburb
Recombinomics Commentary
20:50
December 15, 2008
The girl, from the village of Kerdasa on the western edge of Cairo, had been in contact with infected birds and showed the usual first symptoms -- a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhea
The above comments describe the second confirmed H5N1 case in Egypt this season (see 2009 map) The cases in December and January match initial cases last season in timing and location. Last season most of the cases were fatal, as was the first case this season.
Although reporting of H5N1 in poultry has not been actively covered in the media, which is due in part to Egypt’s announcement last season that H5N1 had become endemic. Therefore, reports of H5N1 in birds are filed every 6 months.
Last season at this time there was also an outbreak of vaccine resistant H5N1 in birds in Egypt and Israel, and one of the final confirmed cases last season was due to the vaccine resistant strain and the patient was also from Cairo. The isolate from that patient was selected by the WHO as a new H5N1 clade 2.2 target.
Sequence data on the cases this season would be useful.
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