CAIRO: Egypt reported two new human cases Sunday of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has already killed two Egyptians and infected four others in recent weeks. Health Minister Hatem Al-Gebali told reporters at Cairo airport that the infected persons were two sisters aged 18 months and six years from the northern Nile Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh. They had been playing with infected poultry … They were given all necessary medical assistance and their condition is stable, he said. Medical testing has established that no other members of their family were infected. Nasser Kamel, from the Supreme National Committee to Combat Bird Flu, said: The cases were detected relatively early on and the two patients responded well to medication. This brings to seven the number of human cases reported in Egypt, two of which proved fatal. Two of the infected Egyptians have been successfully treated with the Tamiflu drug. An Egyptian worker in Jordan was also identified Friday as having been infected by the deadly virus, the kingdom s first human case. Infected poultry have been found in at least 19 of the 26 provinces in Egypt, the hardest-hit country in the region. Egypt is on a major route for migratory birds, at the crossroads between Asia and Africa. The H5N1 strain of bird flu, its most aggressive form, has killed nearly 100 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and seen millions of birds slaughtered. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus was first detected in birds in Egypt in February. The first human case was reported on March 18. According to health officials, although no human-to-human transmission has yet been reported in Egypt, the risk of contamination from infected birds remains high because public awareness is low. According to poultry industry experts, Egypt consumes some 800 million birds a year and exports to the entire region. While the compliance of larger farms with anti-bird flu measures can be more easily controlled, some Egyptians, in mainly rural areas, have been reluctant to give up their domestic rearings. AFP
Egypt reports two new human cases of bird flu
