New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt

[yielddude]

UPDATED: 08:38, November 17, 2006
New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt



Egypt reported on Thursday a new bird flu-striken area in the north of the country where domestic birds were tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the official MENA news agency reported.

The area is located in Manshyat Sultan district in al-Menofiya governorate, 65 km north of Cairo, the report said.

The veterinary teams were culling all birds in the infected region, cleaning the area and examining people who had contacts with the infected poultry, MENA quoted a statement released by the Egyptian Health Ministry as saying.

No symptoms were detected on people who had contacted the birds and samples were being examined at the Health Ministry labs, the statement said.

This is the second new bird flu-infected area reported in Egypt in a week as the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Saturday that new infections of the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus among domestic fowls was discovered in Luxor, some 680 km south of Cairo.

Egypt found the first bird flu case in dead poultry on Feb. 17, and then the virus spread to 20 governorates of the country's 26 in total. So far seven people had died of bird flu virus in the country.

Source: Xinhua

[Theresa42]

Re: New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt

Thx, yd!

The link, just for the record:

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200611/17/eng20061117_322406.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt

With flu season in swing, an innocent kiss may be harmful

By Ahmed Maged
First Published: November 20, 2006

Could lead to bird flu outbreak, says doctor

CAIRO: Be on the guard against kissing friends on the cheek for it could lead to transmission of bird flu, warned Dr Adel Ashur, director of the emergency unit at the National Research Center.

The National Research Center, which has been leading a campaign against the unnecessary exchange of kisses among people for the last year, is out again stressing the campaign?s target at a time when the Ministry of Health is also warning of the deadly effects of the avian flu H5-N1 virus.

?So far there haven?t been cases where the bird flu has been transmitted from a person to person in Egypt,? Ashur told The Daily Star Egypt.

?But we have to warn that kissing is one of the main causes for spreading bird flu among people,? he added.

The virus could be in the incubation phase with the person carrying it not exhibiting any of the disease?s symptoms. Once it?s possible to get the infection through as simple a medium as a kiss, the epidemic will get out of control, he explained.

A simple exchange of kisses on the cheek can lead to several infections ranging from tuberculosis, meningitis, herpes and hepatitis B to mild and easily-cured illnesses like bronchitis, scarlet fever, measles, German measles, common colds, boils and abscesses.

?The kissing lips can never be free of the person?s saliva, droplets and skin contact,? explained Ashur.

?Some 17 diseases transpiring as a result of kissing have been detected. But the severest of these is mononucleosis, which has been puzzling doctors over the years,? he said.

Infectious mononucleosis is ironically commonly called the kissing disease and sometimes shortened to just "mono."

An infection that is usually caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), it is very common and most people are exposed to the virus at some time in childhood.

Ashur says it is difficult to detect because it is accompanied by flu symptoms like a high temperature, throat congestion and aching bones and stomach.

But do such warnings of infectious diseases signal an end to sexual intimacy?

No, says Ashur, stressing that couples can lead perfectly healthy sex lives based on the hygiene of the individuals.

The anti-kissing campaign that started late last year is gaining momentum, especially when the awareness about contagious diseases is increasing rapidly with the bird flu panic and deaths caused by diseases like hepatitis.

The campaign started within the premises of the National Research Center in Cairo.

?We began by spreading awareness about the ill-effects of kissing amongst our staff,? revealed Ashur.

?It was then highlighted in TV programs and newspaper and magazine articles.?

Ashur pointed out that it is a slow process, but like campaigns targeting polio, women?s circumcision, bilharzia and dehydration in babies, it is starting to show some results.

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4047

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt

No kissing???

Somehow that didn't head my list of unsafe activities.

.

[GaudiaRay]

Re: New bird flu-infected area reported in northern Egypt

No kissing???

Somehow that didn't head my list of unsafe activities.

.

Don't sleep with your livestock (they sleep in the next room; that's ok and that's normal, and it's ok for the kids to play with the livestock, barefoot, in the dried fecal dust and dirt, in the outer courtyard and on the sun-baked bread on the house roof, along with the poultry and wildbird droppings; all that's ok).

Don't kiss on the cheek (actually what I saw in Egypt, after 12 days of travel there, from Cairo to Aswan) was male to male and female to female embraces, and those were very few.

What may be a serious bird flu transmitter is caused not by the turkish baths, steamy, small, and packed with nude people coughing, spitting, and sharing the same congested space, hot, dank space and same massage tables, nope, not that, but the hordes of belly dancers on street corners everywhere and in every cafe which are ubiquitous...and in hotels and under rocks, as men place infected currency strategically onto costume elastics. That dirty money spreads the disease. That is something to seriously rail against.