# 4413
Amid word this weekend that a 31st bird flu Fatality (details are sketchy) has been announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Health, we get this brief report from IRIN News on Egypt’s attempts to combat the virus.
First the IRIN report, then what we know about the latest fatality.
IIn Brief: New plan to fight bird flu in Egypt
Photo: Doaa Shaarawy/Save the ChildrenSpecialists raise awareness of bird flu in high-risk areas by disseminating materials on a village-to-village basis (file photo)
CAIRO, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - Egypt is moving to curb the spread of avian influenza (H5N1) after a recent upsurge in infections, the Egyptian Health Ministry says.
The sale of poultry between any of Egypt’s 29 governorates is to be banned, and a major Health Ministry-led awareness campaign will alert the public to the dangers of raising birds at home, Sabir Galal, deputy chief of the Veterinary Medicine Section at the Health Ministry, told IRIN. “Bird flu has become endemic in this country… The fear now is that the virus can assume more dangerous forms in the days to come,” he said.
The Ministry also said it would stop inoculating birds after vaccines had proved incapable of stopping the virus from spreading.
With 105 infections to date, including 30 deaths, Egypt is the world’s third most affected country by avian influenza, according to the World Health Organization.
ae/ed/cb
First, a note about the case counts and fatalities numbers out of Egypt. The numbers are rapidly changing, and media reports over the weekend are suggesting a 31st fatality.
Newshounds Commonground, Twall, and Sharon Sanders are tracking these reports on this thread on FluTrackers, and hopefully we’ll get some clarification in the next day or so. For now, the numbers are `fluid’.
The H5N1 situation in Egypt’s poultry is bad, and appears to be getting worse. Hence the new plan of attack.
Earlier this year it was announced that the sale of live poultry would be banned in Egypt by later this summer.
Thu, 04/02/2010 - 21:54
Live poultry sales to be banned as of July
Mona Yassin
A government-appointed committee for combating the H5N1 and H1N1 viruses--known respectively as bird and swine flu--decided Thursday to ban the sale of live poultry nationwide, starting in July.
According to Environment Minister Maged George, live poultry will be gradually phased out to be replaced by frozen poultry produced by licensed slaughterhouses.
And perhaps most significantly, Egypt now appears ready to abandon the routine vaccination of poultry against the H5N1 virus – a practice that has been subject to much criticism over the years.
The OIE (World Organization For Animal Health) has long maintained that vaccination of poultry cannot be considered a long-term solution to combating the avian flu virus.
In Avian influenza and vaccination: what is the scientific recommendation?, the OIE reiterates their strong recommendation that humane culling be employed to control avian influenza, and advising that vaccines should only be used as a temporary measure.
While the OIE concedes that some nations may require the use of vaccines for `several years', they strongly urge that countries move away from that program and towards the more conventional culling policy.
Vaccines are a particularly attractive solution to countries where poultry makes up a substantial portion of some of their people’s wealth and/or food security.
Culling – while often more effective in controlling bird flu - is traumatic, expensive, and often difficult to implement - which has presented a dilemma to governments in places like Egypt, India, Indonesia, and parts of Asia.
The down side to vaccines is that, over time, the virus can evolve to evade the protective shield offered by the injection, and can infect and spread in poultry `silently’, without showing classic symptoms.
Indonesia, like Egypt, has used vaccines but their bird flu problems persist. Something that Dr. C.A. Nidom has warned about.
Poultry Indonesia Printing Edition, March 2009
(excerpts)
Chairul Anwar Nidom, a virologist with the Tropical Disease Centre at Airlangga University in Surabaya, said a common policy on bird flu was lacking among government agencies, making controlling the disease more difficult.
Nidom criticized the government’s policy of vaccinating poultry rather than culling, believing that it masks the virus, and ultimately contributes to its mutation.
Vietnam appeared to be having good success with vaccinations up until 2007, but since that time bird flu has begun to re-emerge.
And last year, concerns were expressed by doctors in China (see Zhong Nanshan On Asymptomatic Poultry) that asymptomatic vaccinated birds were spreading the H5N1 virus to humans. Meanwhile, in a rebuttal, China Defends Poultry Vaccination Program.
A year ago, I wrote an essay entitled OIE: Countries That Vaccinate Poultry Need An `Exit Strategy'.
It appears that Egypt may finally be prepared to adopt this exit strategy.
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