Egypt on H5N1 Heightened Alert
Recombinomics Commentary 10:28
December 29, 2007
Health precautions against bird flu were heightened Saturday in Egypt after the 41st case was discovered with the disease already leading to the death of 16 people.
According to "Al-Ahram" daily, Health Minister Dr. Hatim Al-Halabi had discussed with officials here precautions to prevent the spread of the flu, giving directions to form a media campaign to warn people about the deadly disease.
The above comments describe a heightened alert in Egypt. Yesterday an alarming number of H5N1 outbreaks were reported, from Beni Suef to multiple locations in the Nile Delta (see satellite map). Similarly, three confirmed cases have been reported in the past few days, including one fatal and one critical infection.
Although Egypt implemented an aggressive vaccination program, the recent poultry and human cases led to an earlier alert and distribution of Tamiflu to hospitals and clinics in the Nile Delta.
The relationship of the current outbreak to cases in Egypt last season, or H5N1 in Pakistan remains unclear.
Release of sequence data from human and avian cases would be useful.
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