CAIRO: The Ministry of Health announced Saturday the 15th Egyptian death from the deadly H5N1 virus, known as bird flu.
The victim, a 10-year-old girl from Qena province, was found to be very critical and hospitalized too late, health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin told the Agence France-Presse.
He added that, although the girl had been ill for more than 10 days, she had only been receiving Tamiflu, the primary drug used to treat bird flu, for the past two.
The girl caught the illness by contact with chickens, Cairo-based World Health Organization official John Jabbour told AFP earlier this week.
The highly lethal virus has infected 35 people in Egypt, killing 15 of them since February 2006, when the disease was first diagnosed in Egypt.
Egypt s geographical location on major bird migration routes and the common practice of raising and slaughtering domestic fowl around living quarters have made it the hardest-hit country outside of Asia.
Women and children have comprised the majority of cases due to their customary role in handling domestic fowl. While the government says it is conducting a vigorous campaign to combat virus’s spread via vaccinations and raising public awareness, some question its commitment.
“It’s a fact that the government has been very concerned with us, unlike some other governments, Ibrahim El Kerdany, WHO spokesperson told The Daily Star Egypt. “The Ministry of Health has done a great job and prepared excellent plans. However while the plans are in place, they need more perseverance and more pushing to implement them.
“We are still seeing many chickens being sold live in open markets in rural areas and people slaughtering chickens in their homes. The media campaign also remains insufficient.
“The problem is that the Ministry of Health cannot enforce its health directives alone. For example, it can’t close down shops. Greater assistance of the other ministries is needed to make these plans happen. Bird flu is everyone’s responsibility, not just the Ministry of Health.
El Kerdany strongly emphasized the need for a more aggressive media campaign in order to raise public awareness of bird flu. The campaign would urge people both to take preventative measures to curtail the spread of the flu and also to encourage early reporting of illnesses amongst people in close contact with poultry so doctors could more effectively treat them. He also stressed the importance of a media campaign’s role in reducing panic from isolated outbreaks of bird flu. Additional reporting by AFP
