Egyptian woman dies of bird flu, 2nd in week
Pastor Dale Morgan
Egyptian woman dies of bird flu, 2nd in week*
30 Dec 2007 18:23:19 GMT
Source: Reuters
CAIRO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird flu
on Sunday, the second fatality among humans in Egypt in less than one
week, the Health Ministry said.
Fatma Fathi Mohamed died in hospital in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura,
three days after she was admitted to a smaller local hospital with a
high temperature and difficulty breathing, it said in a statement
carried by the state news agency MENA.
Her death was the 17th in Egypt since the deadly virus arrived in
February 2006 and it was the 42nd case of bird flu reported among humans
in the Arab world's most populous country.
The Health Ministry said that the latest victim was suspected of
handling sick domestic birds -- the usual way of contracting the virus
in Egypt.
On Wednesday last week another 25-year-old woman, Ola Younis, died of
bird flu in Beni Suef province south of Cairo, the first case of this
winter season.
It is the third winter that the virus has struck, after appearing to
remain dormant during the hot summers.
The health ministry said on Thursday that two other Egyptians had
contracted the disease and were receiving treatment. But the latest
death was not one of those and one health official said those two were
still in hospital.
John Jabbour, an official at the World Health Organisation (WHO), said
last week that the new cases were not surprising.
"The agent is there... Since July we've had no human cases and many
things calmed down, so people returned to dealing with live birds as
usual. Since the virus is there, we expect to have human cases. It's not
a surprise at all," Jabbour said.
The government has promoted a poultry vaccination programme but coercive
measures are hard to enforce.
Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source
of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely
the disease can be eradicated.
Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads
easily from one person to another, possibly triggering a pandemic that
could kill millions.
The virus has killed 212 people since it re-emerged in 2003, according
to the most recent figures from the WHO. (Writing by Jonathan Wright;
editing by Keith Weir)