Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009 - April 9, 2009

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

CAIRO, April 5 (Reuters) - A 6-year-old Egyptian boy has contracted the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, the sixth case in a month in the most populous Arab country, state news agency MENA said on Sunday.
MENA named the boy as Ali Mahmoud Ali Somaa, from the Nile Delta province of Qalyubia. His case brings to 63 the number of confirmed cases of the H5N1 avian flu virus in Egypt, which has been hit harder by bird flu than any other country outside of Asia.
Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine said Somaa started suffering symptoms two weeks ago and was admitted to hospital a week later, where he was treated with the antiviral drug tamiflu, according to MENA.
Somaa is in a critical condition and is breathing with an artificial respirator, MENA said.
On Friday, Egypt reported a 21-month-old boy had contracted bird flu.
Since 2003 the H5N1 avian influenza virus has infected at least 410 people in 15 countries and killed 254 of them. It has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds in 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Some 23 Egyptians have died after contracting the virus, most after coming into contact with infected domestic birds in a country where roughly 5 million households depend on domestically raised poultry as a significant source of food and income.
While H5N1 rarely infects people, experts say they fear it could mutate into a form that people could easily pass to one another, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni)

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL525559420090405?feedType=RSS&feedName=egyptNews

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04050902/H5N1_Beheira_Cluster.html

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

I think # 61 and # 62 may have both been infected in Beheira from a common vector (human or poultry?) since their symptoms were apparent only 2 days apart.

Then the visit to Menoufiya is irrelevant (but was included in the MOH statement and associated reports).

[sharon sanders]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

I think # 61 and # 62 may have both been infected in Beheira from a common vector (human or poultry?) since their symptoms were apparent only 2 days apart.

[Diane Morin]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Egyptian boy contracts bird flu

<CITE class=caption>AFP/File – Chickens sit in a farm near Jamasa city, 170 kms north of Cairo. A six-year-old boy has contracted bird … </CITE>
<CITE class=caption></CITE>

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<!-- end .byline -->CAIRO (AFP) – A six-year-old boy has contracted bird flu, the 63rd recorded case since the first outbreak of the disease in Egypt in 2006 and the third in a week, the health ministry announced on Sunday.

Ali Mahmud Ali from Shubra al-Khaimah, north of Cairo, was hospitalised on March 28 in the Egyptian capital, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin said, as cited by state news agency MENA.

The diagnosis came after about a week, he said.

The child is in a serious condition and is being treated with frontline anti-flu drug Tamiflu, Shahin added.

Hassan Gamil Hassan, 21 months old, was hospitalised on Wednesday in the northern province of Beheira with a high fever, while a two-year-old was taken to hospital in Beheira last Monday.

The toddler had been exposed to dead fowl thought to have been infected with the virus.

Twenty-three people have died of bird flu in Egypt. Most of the victims have been young girls or women, who are generally in charge of looking after poultry in rural areas.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) called last month for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children.
Egypt hosted an international conference on bird flu in October, when Washington pledged an additional 320 million dollars to the fight against the disease amid fears it may yet escalate into a global pandemic.
The H5N1 strain of the virus that is most dangerous to humans first emerged in Asia in 2003 and has since caused nearly 250 deaths, according to WHO figures.

Scientists fear that a mutation of the bird flu virus resulting in a strain easily transmitted among humans could create a pandemic, potentially affecting up to one-fifth of the world's population.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090405/wl_africa_afp/egypthealthflu

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

I am not calling it a coincidence. I am saying we do not know.

I think something has been lost in the translation. The index case (confirmed case #61) was said by the MOH to have developed symptoms while visiting relatives in Menoufiya, strongly implying that the infection was NOT in Beheira (where I suspect there is a MISSING poultry connection). However, a few days later the toddler NEXT DOOR to the index case's house in Beheira develops symptoms and is confirmed as case #62.

Therefore, to do some hand waving suggesting that some environment contageon is responsible would require that the contageon is in Menoifiya and Beheira and caused an H5N1 infection in Menofiaya and coincidentally infected the index case's neighbor in Beheira a few days later would be a difficult sell.

[sharon sanders]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

I am not calling it a coincidence. I am saying we do not know.

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

We have no idea if this is H2H or a common environmental contagion.

Please. One case was infected in Menoufiya and the next door neighbor was infected in Beihera. Coincidences can only be cited a limited number of times, and H5N1 coincidences exceeded the limit many years ago.

[sharon sanders]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

We have no idea if this is H2H or a common environmental contagion.

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

[WARNING: Google Raw Machine Translation from Arabic to English. Readers can found original article at this link http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesP...85&Language=ar - EDITED.]


A spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Abdel Rahman Shahin said in a statement here today that the onset of symptoms the child was sick at his place of his injury, the lake was discovered during a visit to the house of her mother in one of the villages of Al-Menoufiya.

---

Symptoms of #61 in Menoufiya + symptoms of #62 neighbor in Beheira = H2H.

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.00045e1b927e68d58eab0&ll=30.794935,30.709534&spn=0.981485,1.540833&z=9

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04050901/H5N1_Egypt_Remarkable.html

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Officials said he did not concern the spread of the disease Village
Official bird flu injured relatives and neighbors

الأحد، 5 أبريل 2009 - 11:22

Sunday, April 5, 2009 - 11:22

المريضان يبلغ عمرهما عامين وعاما و9 أشهر

Patients aged two years and years and 9 months
<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><script type="text/javascript">var addthis_pub="tonyawad";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/200/addthis_widget.js"></script> <!-- AddThis Button END -->

ف

A Magdy Attallah Al-Chief of the Unit for the local center town of Badr in Beheira, the 61 cases and 62 of the bird-flu-affected children, Mohamed El-Shahat Mohamed Hassan Amer, two years, and Jamil Hassan Mohamed Hassan Amer, years and 9 months, with two children and live in adjacent houses and there is no is reason for concern about the spread of the disease in the village,
pointing out that the discovery of the No. 62 came in the wake of the Committee of Five, consisting of health and veterinary medicine and the environment, security and the local unit to clean the child's home as soon as infection is suspected in the case 61, and suspected in 62 cases the situation has been booked Bhmyat revealed Damanhour analysis of HIV infection.



http://tinyurl.com/dmkhnz

Well beyond EXTREME head patting.

[Treyfish]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Officials said he did not concern the spread of the disease Village
Official bird flu injured relatives and neighbors

الأحد، 5 أبريل 2009 - 11:22

Sunday, April 5, 2009 - 11:22

المريضان يبلغ عمرهما عامين وعاما و9 أشهر

Patients aged two years and years and 9 months
<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var addthis_pub="tonyawad";</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/200/addthis_widget.js"></SCRIPT> <!-- AddThis Button END -->

ف

A Magdy Attallah Al-Chief of the Unit for the local center town of Badr in Beheira, the 61 cases and 62 of the bird-flu-affected children, Mohamed El-Shahat Mohamed Hassan Amer, two years, and Jamil Hassan Mohamed Hassan Amer, years and 9 months, with two children and live in adjacent houses and there is no is reason for concern about the spread of the disease in the village,
pointing out that the discovery of the No. 62 came in the wake of the Committee of Five, consisting of health and veterinary medicine and the environment, security and the local unit to clean the child's home as soon as infection is suspected in the case 61, and suspected in 62 cases the situation has been booked Bhmyat revealed Damanhour analysis of HIV infection.
And Dr. Mahmoud Farid Director of the Directorate of Veterinary Medicine Lake, it was clear the area and that work is underway in the villages neighboring the region, pointing out that the situation is stable and there is no danger of the spread of the disease.

http://translate.google.com/translat...r%26start%3D20

[HenryN]

Re: Egypt - Human Confirmed/Suspected Bird Flu Cases, Feb 8, 2009+

Let's remember, it's Dr. niman, and Dr. niman only, who is putting the "mild- spin" on things. To conclude that the last two toddlers are infected with a new "mild" strain, that is spreading none the less, is an enormous leap, or a spin of some sort. The toddlers contracted h5n1 because they were playing (or somehow came in contact) with dead fowl. Nothing more, nothing less. Since we have a couple toddlers infected back to back, Dr. Niman is simply playing the "toddler-card", since everybody is aware that pandemics strike the young. He knows it, and he is playing it up. What does it matter since nobody will remember his claims next week?

We should start another Egypt thread since this one has become less accurate with the wild speculation mixed in.


Drew

From February report on H5N1 in Egypt

http://www.saidr.org/docs/pdf/ECTAD-EGYNewsReview2009_2.pdf

In February, 2009 the Egyptian health authorities confirmed two new human cases of HPAI H5N1. The first case was of an 18-month-old-boy from Maghagha District on Minya Governorate who is now in stable/good health after being hospitalized a day after manifesting symptoms suggestive of HPAI Infection on 6 February.

The other case was a 2-year-old boy from Ganain District, Suez Governorate, who first showed symptoms suumbleble to HPAI H5N1 infection on 2 February and was admitted to the hospital the next day. He is now in stable condition.

Remarkably, all 4 cases of HPAI H5N1 influenza recorded so far this year have been children between 1-2 years of age. The total number of HPAI H5N1 infected people in Egypt by the end of February 2009 reached 55 of which 23 died.