# 8186
Since the Arab Spring revolution of 2011 and the subsequent political turmoil, reporting on H5N1 out of Egypt has nearly vanished. The number of human cases reported in 2011 was 39, while in 2012 it numbered 11, and last year was just 4.
Whether this signifies an actual drop in the number of infections, or a change in surveillance and reporting is unknown, but it does appear that the media has been less inclined to report on outbreaks than they were a few years ago.
Nevertheless, with rumbling from other Arab nations regarding their MERS-CoV outbreaks, we’ve begun to see a bit more in the Egyptian media about possible respiratory outbreaks, including media speculation that either H5N1 or MERS is to blame.
So far, the government has denied both scenarios.
Yesterday, Sharon Sanders on FluTrackers posted a series of reports emanating from Mansoura Hospital, suggesting that a 65 y.o. there had been diagnosed with `bird flu’.
The discovery of the injury as "bird flu" b "Internists Mansoura" and refused to move Fever
Saturday, January 18th, 2014 - 11:54Dakahlia - Osama Mr. Sharif Deeb
Witness Hospital Internal Medicine at the University of Mansoura case of extreme emergency, after the discovery of a medical condition, Department of the liver called "a. A." 65 years, are infected with bird flu, and rejected the hospital's management transferred to the Fever Hospital, causing resentment among the hospital staff and the fear of contagion workers or patients who are.
Meanwhile, these reports were being denied by the Ministry of Health and the governor of Dakahlia.
Health" denies the emergence of "bird flu" in Dakahlia ..
And stresses: follow the latest diagnostic tools for HIV prevention
Started - Hiba Abdullah and Mahmoud Nofal
Denied the Ministry of Health and Population, the rumors about the emergence of bird flu cases in the province of Dakahlia, noting that the disease did not show any case infected since April 2013 . . .
While this may have been nothing more than an erroneous report, lending credence to it are other media sources that have been reporting on a pair of suspected H5N1 cases in Port Said. Again, a hat tip to Sharon Sanders who started this FT thread.
Emergency hospitals in Port Said after the discovery of cases of bird flu in the governorate
Wrote: Regional Office for the Suez Canal and the Sinai - Mohammed Eweda January 18, 2014 16:00
Port Said Governorate lifted the state of emergency, in all hospitals in the province, following the discovery of cases of bird flu in the governorate.When he said "my dream Aallna" Director General of Health in Port Said, on Saturday afternoon it was the discovery of two infected with bird flu, the first case was transferred to a hospital in Mansoura university (Mansoura is in Dakahlia province s. ) , after it was ascertained virus positive ones.
As has been the reservation to the second case, a hospital dietary district climate, and is now in stable condition after taking the drug "Tamiflu".
Between government denials, and dodgy machine translations from the Arabic, it isn’t at all certain what is going on there. Adding to the confusion, there are separate reports of 4 doctors hospitalized with `pneumonia’ or `respiratory illness’ over the past few weeks, three of whom have supposedly died. Again from Flutrackers.
1)Dr. Ahmed Abdullatif – deceased
2)Dr. Osama (last name assumed to be Rashid) - hospitalized on respiratorEgypt - Doctor, 37, hospitalized suspected novel coronavirus - tests pending - Mansoura, Dakahlia govenorate - January 8
3)Dr. Doaa Ahmed Ismail – deceased
4)Dr. Yasser Barbary – deceased
Media and official explanations for these deaths range anywhere from `MRSA’ pneumonia, to `unknown virus’, to speculation that it is due to MERS or Avian Flu. It could even be the pH1N1 virus, given its impact this year.
Frankly, your guess is as good as mine, and we could easily be seeing a mixture of causes, rather than a single etiology.
While the official position seems to be there is nothing untoward is going on there, for a variety of reasons, the newshounds of Flublogia will be keeping their eyes on Egypt over the next few weeks to see what develops.
