Egyptian woman tests positive for bird flu -WHO
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Egyptian woman tests positive for bird flu -WHO*
22 Jul 2007 19:27:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
CAIRO, July 22 (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has tested
positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the number of
human cases in the most populous Arab country to 38, a World Health
Organisation official said on Sunday.
"There is a case," said John Jabbour of the World Health Organisation in
Cairo, adding that the woman was believed to have fallen ill after
contact with dead household birds.
Egypt's state news agency MENA identified the woman as Naima Abdu Gamil
of the Nile Delta province of Damietta, in northern Egypt. It said she
developed a high fever on Friday and was in good condition after
receiving the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
The infection was a rare human case in Egypt's sweltering summer months.
Egyptian officials had forecast the virus would hide away during the
summer following a pattern set in 2006 when human bird flu cases
disappeared between May and October.
While bird flu did diminish in Egypt as the weather warmed, human cases
have continued to occur sporadically. Since bird flu first emerged in
Egyptian poultry last year, 15 Egyptians have died from the virus.
Bird flu did extensive damage to the country's poultry industry and the
economy after its arrival in Egypt, which has had more confirmed bird
flu cases among humans than any other single country outside 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 cooler than in the south.
Experts fear 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.