# 8392
After holding the dubious honor of reporting the most human infections with the H5N1 virus for four years running (2009=39, 2010=29, 2011=39, 2012=11), the reported number of cases out of Egypt has plummeted last year (2013) to only 4.
As this drop in cases occurred pretty much concurrent with the revolution and ongoing political turmoil in Egypt, and with that - a decided reduction in press freedom - it has become increasingly more difficult to discern the level of H5N1 activity in that country over the past couple of years.
We’ve occasionally seen murmurs in the press suggestive of H5N1 or MERS cases (see Egypt: 4th Doctor Dies Of Pneumonia), but Egypt’s Ministry of Health has been quick to issue blanket denials. The last H5N1 case in Egypt reported to the World Health Organization was in the spring of 2013.
With those caveats in place, the Arabic media has been reporting on a pair of H5N1 cases over the past few hours, although a quick check of Egypt’s Ministry of Health & Population website shows nothing as yet.
Sharon Sanders on FluTrackers has started a thread (here), and already has a couple of reports posted.
Below you find a screen shot of a report from ONA (Oman News Agency) that I picked up, along with the translated text of the report:
The Ministry of Health and Population for the two cases of human infection with avian influenza A H5N1, and was the first infection of a woman 56 years old housewife in Beheira (Damanhur) and is currently on a ventilator and in poor condition.
She added that the second case of a child age 4 years in Damietta (Annaana) and his health condition is moderate, and pointed out the statement of Health it has been giving both cases the drug "Tamiflu", and is considered both cases are the first two cases during the year 2014 and are still under treatment at the hospital, and was the last human case of bird flu in a month April 2013.
While this report seems pretty straight forward, we’ll have to wait to see what official response (if any) will be forthcoming from the Egyptian MOH.
