CAIRO: Doctors in Egypt have detected a new human case of the H5N1 bird flu, the 19th in the country so far, health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen said Wednesday.
Warda Eid Ahmed, 27, from Beni Sueif, was hospitalized on Jan. 13 in Cairo before being diagnosed with bird flu four days later.
The young woman is being treated with Tamiflu, Shaheen told AFP, adding that her relatives were not infected with the highly pathogenic strain of the virus.
In late December, a 26-year-old man became the 10th victim to die of the H5N1 avian flu virus in Egypt yesterday, following the death of two of his relatives mere days earlier.
The three from Gharbeya province had contracted the disease after slaughtering infected ducks.
But many cases of avian flu in Egypt have not led to death. Hassan El-Bushra of the World Health Organization (WHO) explains that while there are a number of interrelated variables, such as health factors and dose of infection, the biggest determinant of death is time of treatment.
He explains: Tamiflu is very strong if it is administered in the first 48 hours. After that it weakens.
He says the problem is that the family denied for a week any contact with sick or dead poultry, as many others do. He says the victims could also harm the doctors and nurses with their denials.
El-Bushra insists the Ministry of Health and WHO are not at fault. We have told them please don t touch infected birds.but still people do it.
People do deny having dead or infected poultry because it is the main source of food for many low-income families.
The government has overseen the culling of some 30 million birds over the past eight months, and has put into place tough restrictions on poultry keeping. So-called “backyard birds , which are chickens or ducks kept in small numbers in low-income homes for extra food or cash, have been outlawed.
While Egypt is the most affected non-Asian country in the world, Shaheen said considering the size of the population there were very few cases.
There is no reason to be worried in a country of 72 million where they eat a great deal of chicken every day, he said.
There have been a number of false alarms over new bird flu cases reported in Egypt s press over the past few days, which has also noted that the disease appears to be becoming more virulent.
Though only 10 of the 19 people affected have died, all three who contracted the disease in the past few months did not survive.
The health ministry last month launched a $10 million awareness campaign on television, radio and in newspapers. Meetings are also held in rural areas to educate the population about the risks of bird flu.
With additional reporting from AFP
