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EGYPT: Bird flu claims tenth fatal victim

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]


© Victoria Hazou/IRIN



CAIRO, 28 Dec 2006 (IRIN) - Health ministry officials reported the tenth death in Egypt to be caused by the avian influenza virus H5N1, this time a 26-year-old male factory worker. He died on 27 December.

According to ministry media official Sayyid al-Abbasi, the latest victim was a relative of two females, one aged 30 and the other 15, who died over the course of the week in Gharbiyya province, 90 km north of Cairo.

“They all lived in the same house,” he said, where infected domestically kept birds were being reared. “All three were in frequent contact with the infected ducks, cleaning and slaughtering them.”

Tests for the virus have been run on the rest of the household. “No other members of the family are infected,” al-Abbasi said.

Virus H5N1 was first detected among humans in Egypt in March 2006, and a month earlier among birds. The majority of infections and all of the deaths have been among people who reared birds domestically as opposed to on farms.

In response to the risk of infection by rearing birds at home, the government banned domestic poultry rearing in urban centres. However, the country’s health authorities did not impose similar restrictions in rural areas where domestic breeding is more widespread and economically vital.

“A ban would lead many to conceal their birds, heightening the danger rather than quelling it,” Abdel Rahman Shahine, a health ministry official, said.

“Instead, the government plans to intensify its awareness campaign,” al-Abbasi told IRIN, to prevent new infections among humans from occurring.

Egypt’s densely inhabited Nile Valley saw the worst concentration of bird flu infection this year outside Asia. The area has a large rural population that has traditionally reared poultry for food and income, and lies on major routes for migratory birds.

sa/ar