Commentary
17 Suspect H5N1 Cases Hospitalized in Sohag Egypt
Recombinomics Commentary 12:37
June 2, 2008
Hospital Dietetic detained 17 Sohag Sohag a company for investment "poultry" Alkuaml village were suspected of infected with bird flu after a very high temperature and throat congestion.
Has been taking blood samples from patients and sent to central laboratories of the Ministry of Health in Cairo for analysis .. executed by the Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in conjunction with the Directorate of Agriculture to preserve the company's 3500 draft chickens after tests proved that being infected with bird flu virus.
The above translation describes the hospitalization of 17 poultry employees in Sohag after they developed symptoms and poultry tested positive for H5N1. Although there is significant discordance between local media reports of suspect patients, and WHO confirmed patients, the clustering of 17 workers at one facility is unusual, as is the late date of the infections. Most suspect cases of H5N1 in Egypt are in the spring.
Although the number of confirmed cases in Egypt in the 2007/2008 has been lower than the prior two years, the cases have been more severe and linked to pneumonia, in contrast to the mild cases in the spring of 2007.
A vaccine resistant sub-clade of H5N1 was reported in poultry beginning in mid December. H5N1 was isolated in vaccinated flocks and the HA sequence had a large number of non-synonymous changes, including M230V.
This sub-clade was first made public with sequences from the national veterinary lab (NLQP), followed by similar sequences from Israel, and Egyptian poultry isolates sequenced in Italy and by NAMRU-3. The PB2 sequence from Israel had three consecutive polymorphisms that matched the H1N1 1918 pandemic sequence.
However, none of the human sequences from the recent 2007 / 2008 season have been made public. The last releases on human sequences were made almost a year ago, although the NAMRU-3 has released poultry sequences from this season and recently released a sequence from an egret from February, 2006.
Thus, the lack of human sequences has raised questions about the relationship of human sequences this year to the vaccine resistant clade.
More clinical information on the latest suspect cluster, as well as human sequences from this season would be useful.
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