# 9758
Yesterday, in Egypt’s Uncertain H5N1 Case Count, we looked at the efforts of Sharon Sanders to maintain FluTracker’s Egypt - 2015 WHO/MoH/Provincial Health Depts H5N1 Confirmed Case List, which today shows 74 cases for the year, and 20 deaths for the year.
Today I was pleased to stumble upon a new report, issued by the World Health Organization, that closely matches Sharon’s totals, indicating that since September 24th Egypt has recorded 109 H5N1 cases, of which between 75 & 80 have occurred since the first of the year.
Sharon’s conservatively curated count over the same period was an impressively close 107.
This excerpt comes from a series of reports, issued today, called:
There is a good deal more to these documents than these summaries, and I expect to revisit these documents over the next couple of days. For now, however:
Influenza A(H5) activity from 24 September 2014 to 23 February 2015
A(H5) viruses have been detected in birds in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. A(H5) human infections have been reported to WHO by China (3 cases) and Egypt (109 cases), countries in which infections have been detected in birds (Table 1). Two of the human infections in China were caused by A(H5N6) viruses. One human case in China and those in Egypt were caused by A(H5N1) viruses. A(H5) viruses were detected in birds in Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), United States of America (USA), Viet Nam and West Bank and Gaza Strip
Within this same document is a summary of recent H7N9 activity (that once again, comes pretty close to FluTrackers Independent Tally):
Influenza A(H7N9) activity from 24 September 2014 to 23 February 2015
During this period, 148 human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection were reported to WHO, bringing the total number of cases to 602 with 227 deaths reported4. All human cases were detected in China, or in travelers who visited China (2 in Canada). Increased genetic heterogeneity of HA and NA gene sequences was observed among recent viruses from humans, poultry and environmental samples. Comparison of these viruses using haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays showed that the majority remained antigenically similar to the CVVs derived from A/Anhui/1/2013-like viruses.
Kudos go to Sharon Sanders, and her entire FluTrackers team for keeping such good track of these cases over the months, even when the Ministries of Health have been less than forthcoming.
