Egyptian girl dies of bird flu, 14th death
Pastor Dale Morgan
Egyptian girl dies of bird flu, 14th death*
11 Apr 2007 10:48:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
CAIRO, April 11 (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Egyptian girl has died in
hospital of the H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the number of deaths from
the disease in Egypt to 14, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.
Marianna Kameel Mikhail, who was admitted to hospital in Cairo on
Thursday, died of respiratory failure on Tuesday evening despite
treatment with the antiviral Tamiflu and being placed on a respirator, a
ministry statement said.
Amr Kandeel, director of communicable diseases at the Ministry of
Health, said the treatment failed because the girl did not enter
hospital until a week to 10 days after the symptoms started.
As in several other fatal cases in Egypt, the patient and her relatives
denied she had had any recent contact with domestic poultry, Kandeel added.
Out of a total of 34 humans who have caught bird flu in Egypt, 14 have
died and 19 have recovered. A two-year-old girl from central Egypt is
under treatment and Kandeel said she was in a good condition.
The health ministry statement said none of Mikhail's family were found
to have bird flu.
The disease hit Egypt in February 2006 and did extensive damage to the
poultry industry and the economy as a whole. But the government still
finds it hard to enforce restrictions on the movement and sale of live
poultry.
Egypt has the highest number of confirmed human bird flu cases outside
Asia.