EGYPT 31 Dec 2007 - 1 Jan 2008

[HenryN]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

Two Egyptian women die of bird flu virus <!-- END HEADLINE -->
<!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->By Cynthia Johnston 27 minutes ago



Jabbour said the high fatality rate in the recent cases was likely due to a delay in diagnosis after patients and their family members denied exposure to infected birds.
"All of the new cases have exposure to sick or dead backyard birds. ... The problem is the delay in reporting that they have been exposed," he said. Patients are most likely to survive if they start treatment with Tamiflu early after symptoms occur.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080101/...6q6d3vPSIiANEA

More hopes and dreams.

[Treyfish]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

Two more Egyptian women die of bird flu virus

Fatalities begin to climb after lull in avian flu cases

CAIRO - Two Egyptian women died of bird flu on Monday, bringing to four the number of fatalities from the virus in the most populous Arab country in less than a week as Egypt emerged from a warm-weather lull in avian flu cases.

All four deaths involved women and were believed to have resulted from exposure to sick or dead backyard birds.
Firdaus Mohamed Hadad of Menoufia province in the Nile Delta region north of Cairo was taken to hospital on Saturday and died early on Monday, Egypt's Health Ministry said in a statement.
"She suffered from a high fever and difficulty breathing and had a pulmonary infection after coming into contact with birds suspected of being infected with avian flu," the statement said. "She was placed on a respirator but died at dawn on Monday."
Later, John Jabbour, an Egypt-based World Health Organization official, told Reuters a second woman had died of bird flu in northern Egypt. The health ministry identified the woman as Hanem Ibrahim from Damietta, also in the Nile Delta.
The four Egyptian deaths from bird flu over the past week broke a 5-month pause in human cases in Egypt and brought to 19 the number of Egyptians who have died of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus since it emerged in Egypt in early 2006.
It is also the third winter that the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers, when it is much less likely to spread from one carrier to another.
On Sunday, a 25-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird flu in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura while another woman, Ola Younis, died of bird flu on Wednesday in Beni Suef province south of Cairo, the first case of this winter season.
Jabbour said the high fatality rate in the recent cases was likely due to a delay in diagnosis after patients and their family members denied exposure to infected birds.
"All of the new cases have exposure to sick or dead backyard birds. ... The problem is the delay in reporting that they have been exposed," he said. Patients are most likely to survive if they start treatment with Tamiflu early after symptoms occur.
Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated despite a large-scale poultry vaccination program. WHO officials have said the bird flu virus was now considered endemic in Egypt.
Deaths from bird flu now total more than 210 worldwide since 2003 and have been reported in several African and Asian countries, as well as in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Egypt, with 43 confirmed human cases, has been the single hardest-hit country outside of Asia.
Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily from one person to another, possibly triggering a pandemic that could kill millions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22456496/

[HenryN]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01010802/H5N1_Egypt_Evolution.html

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01...Evolution.html

Commentary

H5N1 Evolution in Egypt
Recombinomics Commentary 03:22
January 1, 2008

Jabbour said the high fatality rate in the recent cases was likely due to a delay in diagnosis after patients and their family members denied exposure to infected birds.

"All of the new cases have exposure to sick or dead backyard birds. ... The problem is the delay in reporting that they have been exposed," he said. Patients are most likely to survive if they start treatment with Tamiflu early after symptoms occur.

The above explanation for the high current case fatality rate in Egypt, like many comments of the H5N1 evolution, is most viable in the absence of data. However, the data for last season suggest that much of the difference between the high case fatality rate at the beginning of the season, when the first seven cases died, and the case fatality rate for the remainder of the season, when only one of the seventeen confirmed case died, could be explained by newly acquired polymorphisms that were associated with fatal cases.

Egypt offers an ideal evolution for rapid evolution. It lies at the intersection of two major flyways and has the large Nile Delta, which offers the opportunity for co-infections. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the Nile Delta and along the Nile River. The backyard poultry can mix with the wild birds, increasing opportunities for additional co-infections in domestic poultry.

Egypt reported 922 outbreaks in OIE reports beginning in early 2006. H5N1 was widespread then an affected large commercial farms as well as backyard holdings (see satellite maps here here here here here), In 2006, the sequence data from H5N1 linked to these outbreaks was relatively homogeneous. Samples had polymorphisms that traced upstream to Europe and downstream to west Africa, as well as markers that were regionally localized to Egypt, Israel, Giza, and Djibouti.

After a lull over the summer, H5N1 infections were again reported in the fall of 2007. Both bird and human sequences had the same series of polymorphism identified in the earlier isolates. However, the sequences were more genetically diverse and had many additional regional markers. One of the markers from northern isolates was M230I, a polymorphism found in all human seasonal flu isolates (H1N1, H3N2, influenza B). This marker was associated with fatal cases. All cases with M230I died, and M230I was in five of the seven fatal cases.

Other regional markers were found in isolates from southern Egypt. These cases were mild and were not linked to any fatalities. The reported cases in the spring were much more common that the cases in the fall.

This season, the H5N1 infections combine the properties seen in the previous season. The reported cases are frequent, as was seen in the spring, but the infections produced a high case fatality rate, as was seen in the prior fall.

This combination creates pandemic concerns.

Release of sequences from patients and birds would be useful.


.

[Treyfish]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=content01>Egypt Reports 19th Human Bird Flu Death</TD></TR><TR><TD height=45><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=5 width="100%" bgColor=#cccccc><TBODY><TR><TD class=content02 bgColor=#e8e8e8> 2008-01-01 05:29:54 Xinhua</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE class=content03 id=dstTable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>The Egyptian Health Ministry said a second woman died of bird flu on Monday, bringing the death toll of the fatal disease in the populous country to 19 since the emergence of the lethal H5N1 virus last year.
Hanem Atwa Ibrahim, who was admitted to the intensive care unit of Abasiya Chest Hospital in Cairo on Wednesday, died Monday evening, the official MENA news agency quoted Health Ministry sources as saying.
The 50-year-old woman was from Damietta Governorate in the Nile Delta, some 150 km north of the capital of Cairo.
Ibrahim became the fourth victim of the virus in the most populous Arab nation in less than a week.
Earlier in the day, another woman from the Nile Delta's Minufiya Governorate, some 65 km north of Cairo, died after contracting the fatal avian influenza.
Fardos Mohamed Haddad, 36, died of the H5N1 strain of virus on Monday morning after being admitted to a fever hospital on Saturday due to fever, breathing problems and pneumonitis.
The fatalities on Monday came just one day after the death of Fatima Fathi Mohamed, 25, from Delta governorate of Dakahlia, some 90 km north of Cairo.
On Tuesday evening, a 25-year-old woman Oula Yunes Ali Mohamed died of bird flu in Beni Suef Governorate, some 120 km south of Cairo, which was the first fatal case in this winter season in Egypt.
According to media statistics, Egypt has reported a total of 43 human cases up to now since it detected its first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD height=10></TD></TR><TR><TD><!--RelAV -->http://english.cri.cn/2947/2008/01/01/198@309806.htm</TD></TR><TR><TD height=10></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[Theresa42]

Re: .:.17th H5N1 death in EGYPT [Fatma Fathi Mohamed].:.

Family reports that Fatima did not receive proper treatment -- that her bf was not diagnosed early enough. They say she began to have symptoms on Dec 22 and first went to get medical help at that time.

Google-translated from Arabic:

Dakahlia deposit [bury] victim bird flu .. 7 cases were suspected in 3 provinces
1/1/2008

Written by Mamdouh Arafa and a light stone and Ceyhan Khalifa, Mohammed Hamdi Abdel The soldier, Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil

[Summary:] She called Dakahlia governorate yesterday evening I, Fatima Mahdi victim of bird flu in the funeral sad -- and detained [in] 3 hospitals in Menoufiya 5 citizens on suspicion of injury, and detained Hospital pathogenesis Zagazig children [child] for the same reason, and detained pathogenesis Banha hospital nurse on suspicion of being infected -- as was the reservation the 1300 Nestling, and 220 duck in Qena, on suspicion of being infected, have been executed 6 thousand chickens in Qaliubia prove after being infected.


Mourning tents in the village of Dakahlia Company 2 of the Center for Dkrns [Dikirnis] during the funeral of Fatima Fathi Mohammed Mahdi 30 years as a result of being infected with severe pneumonia Inflammation and high temperature lasted weeks without detection doctors village or villages surrounding it infected Avian.

He said, Sami Jerhristi Sultan, a relative of the deceased she started trip disease since Saturday December 22 last, when hit by a rise in temperature, cough and asthma, Vengulwha to a clinic but the doctor did not discover infected with Avian and given anti vital, and solutions for a single day, he added, they went to another doctor, referred to a hospital Dkrns [Dikirnis] pathogenesis.

He said that Fatima Jerhristi deposited at the hospital amid severe neglect and without taking any medical procedures or conduct analysis and satisfied by giving them solutions, and two days later was transferred to the General Hospital of Mansoura, who declined to receive and headed to the hospital emergency, after hours of the presence in the hospital, make sure that doctors the situation with virus H5N1 cause of the disease avian influenza, and immediately transmit them to the hospital administration Sadr hospital, and there were isolated in one room, and liberated the record signed by the patient, the blood sample was taken for analysis in the central laboratory.

The Jerhristi they received a telephone call at four o'clock dawn yesterday first-Sunday-Diana.

In Eastern [Ash Sharqiyah] detained Hospital pathogenesis Zagazig child Nabil Ahmed Mohamed, 8 years, from the village of Hrbit Abkber Center for the emergence of symptoms similar to bird flu disease, and Dr. Sayed Aboualjer, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health that a child infected Inflammation of the throat and nominated and a rise in temperature.

In Menoufiya detained hospitals pathogenesis Mnov and Shebin Mound and Martyrs [3 different hospitals]: Adel Mohammed Adel, from Srs Allian and daughter prayer, housewives, Mohammed Saeed Abdel Rahman, 18, from the village of Braheem, Mohammed Fawzi Karim Nada, from the village of Kafr Sheikh Khalil in Shebin Mound, benign Abdalhviz Rizq, 23, from a village in Abokls martyrs, and sampling them for analysis.

In Qalyubiyah detained Hospital pathogenesis Banha Safa Abdel Mohammed, a nurse at the health unit necessary for the village's center Shebin Spans on suspicion of being infected because they are raising birds at home, and it appeared the symptoms of the disease.

In Qalyubiyah also executed Directorate of veterinary medicine 6 thousand chickens in a farm in the village of Kafr in honor of debt after being infected with proven, in Qena Supply Investigation seized together with the teams fight bird flu in two cars ambushed albedo of the city of Qena, on board 1300 Nestling My age 21 days, and 220 duck Omar 15 days, on suspicion of being infected with the disease.

The Governor said Major General Magdi Ayoub, and that both cars were on their way from the city to the city of Qena lock for the distribution of birds on clients, and that he would show a forgery in a statement Alhmolten been reservation to birds, and sampling for analysis.

http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=88438

[HenryN]

Re: Woman dies of bird flu in Egypt, fourth in week-WHO

Egypt reports fourth bird flu death in a week
Posted: 01 January 2008 1903 hrs
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=260 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=right width=20> </TD><TD align=right width=240></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top height=60> </TD><TD class=update vAlign=top height=60><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=138 bgColor=#f6f6f6>Photos </TD><TD width=47 bgColor=#f6f6f6>1 of 1</TD><TD width=18 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=btnPrev disabled onclick=Prev(); type=image height=15 width=18 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_previous.gif" value="<< Previous"></TD><TD width=19 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=bntPlay onclick=Play() type=image height=15 width=19 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_stop.gif" value="Play - Stop"></TD><TD width=18 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=btnNext disabled onclick=Next(); type=image height=15 width=18 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_next.gif" value=" Next >> "></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
An Egyptian worker cleans a chicken farm near Jamasa city, 170 kilometres north of Cairo.</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD class=update> </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

CAIRO : Egypt's health ministry said another woman has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the fourth such death in a week, local media reported on Tuesday.

Hanem Atwa Ibrahim, 50, from Damietta north of Cairo, died late on Monday in a hospital in the capital and was the 19th death from the disease in Egypt, the state-owned daily Al-Ahram reported.

Atwa was admitted to hospital on December 24 and had been in critical condition since.

Another woman, 36-year-old Fardos Mohammed Haddad from the Nile Delta province of Menufia, also died on Monday from the disease.

On Sunday, Fatma Fathi Mohammed, 25, from the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya died of bird flu just days after the death of Ola Yunes Ali.

Egypt's location on major bird migration routes and the widespread practice of keeping domestic fowl near living quarters have led to it being the hardest-hit country outside Asia.

The government says it is conducting a vigorous campaign to combat the spread of the virus through vaccinations and raising awareness, but experts and officials have warned against the relaxation of precautions. - AFP/ch

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/320182/1/.html