Egyptian girl dies of bird flu virus
Pastor Dale Morgan
Egyptian girl dies of bird flu virus*
By Cynthia Johnston
Reuters
Saturday, June 9, 2007; 6:18 AM
CAIRO (Reuters) - A 10-year-old Egyptian girl who contracted the H5N1
bird flu virus died on Saturday, bringing the number of fatalities from
the disease in the most populous Arab country to 15, the health ministry
said.
The girl, identified as Mayyada Tuhami, is reported to have fallen ill
on June 1 after coming into contact with infected household birds but
did not enter hospital until roughly a week later, delaying potentially
life-saving treatment.
Her case followed a nearly two-month warm weather lull in human bird flu
cases in Egypt, where 35 people are known to have contracted the virus
since it was first detected in Egyptian poultry in early 2006.
The Egyptian health ministry said in a statement that the girl, from the
southern town of Qena, had been admitted to hospital on Thursday with a
high fever and a pulmonary infection, and was put on an artificial
respirator.
"She died at dawn on Saturday and is considered the 15th death from bird
flu in Egypt," the statement said.
Bird flu did extensive damage to the country's poultry industry and the
economy as a whole after its arrival in Egypt, which has more confirmed
human bird flu cases than any other country outside of Asia.
Most of those who have fallen ill in Egypt were reported to have had
contact with sick or dead household birds, primarily in northern Egypt
where the weather is typically cooler than in the south.
But in a sign of a change in how the disease may be occurring in Egypt,
all but two of the past 11 human cases have occurred in central or
southern parts of the country.
Bird flu experts in Egypt have said they would typically expect fewer
human cases of the disease during Egypt's sweltering summer months, and
in 2006 there was a summertime lull in human cases between May and October.
Experts fear that the bird flu virus might mutate or combine with the
highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a deadly pandemic
which could circle the globe and kill millions.
Around five 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. The government still finds it
hard to enforce restrictions on the movement and sale of live poultry.