# 3687
The WHO (World Health Organization) has updated their H5N1 `human bird flu’ tracking by adding the two human infections reported out of Egypt this past weekend (see here and here).
Here is today’s Egyptian update.
Avian influenza - situation in Egypt - update 22
31 August 2009 -- The Ministry of Health of Egypt has reported 2 new confirmed human case of avian influenza A(H5N1).
The first case is a 2 year-old female from Menofyia Governorate. Her symptoms started on 23 August. She was admitted to a fever hospital on 26 August, where she received oseltamivir treatment. The patient is in a stable condition.
The second case is an 14 year-old female from Damitta Governorate. Her symptoms started on 21 August. She was admitted to a fever hospital on 23 August, where she received oseltamivir treatment, and is in a stable condition.
Investigations into the source of infection indicated that both cases had close contact with dead and/or sick poultry.
The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories.
Of the 85 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 27 have been fatal.
The WHO’s cumulative report on confirmed human infections has been updated as well, with 440 cases now noted. Noticeably absent, of course, are any updates in 2009 from Indonesia.
Despite numerous reports of human infections quite early in the year, the Indonesian government has refused to comment, or confirm any human infections with the virus this year.
Indonesia continues to withhold H5N1 virus samples from the WHO, and the rest of the world as well, with that standoff well over 2 years old.
The numbers in this chart, therefore, need to be taken with a sizeable grain of salt. It is likely that we are missing cases from other countries as well.
The good news is that the H5N1 virus remains primarily a disease of birds, and has not learned to transmit efficiently from human to human.
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