Suspect H5N1 Fatality in Cairo Egypt
Recombinomics Commentary 12:28
December 31, 2007
43-year-old primary school teacher Salah Eddin Mohamed Ali had died of acute pneumonia at dawn the day before yesterday according to the hospital report. As per the information we have obtained, the dead man had told the hospital to which he was taken on Friday that he was raising poultry in his house, prompting the hospital's administration to inform the officials at once.
He began to complain from acute chest pains and inability to breathe normally, but he did not see a doctor. When he fell ill again, we took him to the Manshiyet al-Bakry Hospital where he was brought into the intensive care unit. He died at dawn on Saturday [Dec 29]," she told al-Masry al-Youm.
The above translation describes a suspect H5N1 fatality in Cairo (see sateliite map). Birds and samples have been collected from the home of the deceased. The acute pneumonia is a classic symptom of bird flu, which when coupled with the age of the patient and the linkage to birds, increases the likelihood of an H5N1 infection. Earlier OIE reports described H5N1 in roof-top holdings in Giza.
More information of lab test of the fatal case and associated birds would be useful.
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