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Egypt Announces Another H5N1 Fatality

 

 

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Although bird flu cases generally decline during the warmer summer months, today’s announcement from the World Health Organization is the third such update this month, reporting a total of 7 cases reported since mid-May.

 

Also surprising are the number of fatal cases (5 of 7), and that all of the victims have been somewhat older than we have normally seen in Egypt, ranging in age from 16 to 40.

 

 

 

Avian influenza - situation in Egypt - update 54

22 June 2011 - The Ministry of Health of Egypt has notified WHO of a new case of human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus.

 

The case is a 27 year-old male from Qena governorate, Deshna district. He developed symptoms on 5 June 2011, was hospitalized and was put on oseltamivir treatment on 13 June. He died on 14 June 2011.

 

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that the case had exposure to poultry suspected to have avian influenza.

 

The case was confirmed by the Egyptian sub-national laboratory for Influenza in Aswan and the Central Public Health Laboratories in Cairo, a National Influenza Centre of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

 

Of the 150 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 52 have been fatal.

 

 

It should be noted that the newshounds on the flu forums continue to track a small number of other – as yet unconfirmed – reported cases in Egypt.

 

Today’s report brings this year’s total to 31 cases and 12 fatalities.  

 

While human cases in the middle-east outside of Egypt have not been reported in many years, the lack of accurate testing, surveillance, and reporting in many of these nations is somewhat less reassuring.

 

Bird flu remains primarily a threat to poultry - as the virus remains poorly adapted to human physiology – although there are signs that may be slowly changing (see PLoS: Human-Type H5N1 Receptor Binding In Egypt).

 

Despite ample opportunities to cause illness in humans, the virus only causes rare, sporadic infections.

 

The `official’ number of cases that are reported each year - due to limitations in global testing, surveillance, and reporting - likely represent a subset of the actual number of infections.

 

The concern, of course, is that over time that may change.  That the virus will mutate into a form that is easily acquired and passed on by humans.

 

And so we watch developments in places where the virus is endemic with particular interest.

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H5N1
Bird Flu
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