H5N1 Infected Cairo Teenager Dies
Recombinomics Commentary
April 10, 2007
She died yesterday girl Marina Mikhail (15 years), following the presence of bird flu, raising the number of deaths the disease to 14 people. The girl had entered al-Sadr Abbassiya hospital last Thursday following a rise in the temperature following the sinking Batteur suspected in the presence of avian influenza.
The above translation describes the death of the most recent confirmed case in Egypt. The patient was the first confirmed case in Cairo and was older than the recent children from central and southern Egypt. The cases in southern Egypt had been mild, in contrast to older patients in the north, including the Gharbiya cluster.
The initial cases in Gharbiya had M230I which had been reported for the first time in human cases infected with the Qinghai strain. Recently released sequences from northern Germany include an eagle owl isolate with M230I. In humans, all cases in Egypt were fatal. Therefore the sequence from the case above will be of interest. A February isolate, A/chicken/Egypt/1892N3-HK49/2007 (see slide 54), from a chicken in Gharbiya had M230I, along with an NA polymorphism, G743A, from Germany.
Sequences from Egypt this season have an increase in newly acquired polymorphisms, including a novel cleavage site, previously found in Mongolia, as well as the receptor binding domain changes, V223I, which had also been previously described in Mongolia.
These acquisitions are on an Egyptian Qinghai genetic background, signaling recombination. These predictable genetic changes can be used to generate novel vaccine targets.
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