# 310
While Indonesia has captured the spotlight in the past week, and will likely remain in the forefront in the coming days, there are bird flu reports from elsewhere in the world. A brief roundup follows:
Egypt
While I have the Arabic-English translation of the news article, I’ll spare my readers that bit of mind numbing reading and substitute the Bloomberg reporting on it instead:
A 20-year-old woman is being treated for suspected avian flu at a hospital in Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, the government-run newspaper Al-Ghomhuria reported, without citing a source for the information. A 23-year-old woman died from virus in the same province, Al-Ghomhuria said. The WHO office in Cairo and Egypt's Health Ministry wouldn't confirm the report.
The health ministry also found four poultry outbreaks in the delta governorate of Qaliyoubia, in northern Egypt, the newspaper said.
These two cases come after 3 deaths last month near Cairo from the H5N1 virus. If confirmed this latest death would be Egypt’s 19th case.
Thailand
This report from Reuters:
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has suffered its first outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in six months, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Monday after a rash of outbreaks in Vietnam and four human deaths in Indonesia this year.
"The lab results confirmed that some ducks in the northern province of Phitsanulok have been infected with H5N1 bird flu virus," Livestock Department chief Pirom Srichan told Reuters.
"We have culled about 1,900 ducks in the area."Thailand's last outbreak of the virus in poultry was in late July, and the last human death in August, the country's 17th since the virus re-emerged in Asia in late 2003.
Vietnam
Jan 14, 7:59 AM ET
Bird flu outbreak an 'alarming' concern for Vietnam
Bird flu has killed poultry in a seventh province in southern Vietnam, state media said, describing the spread of the disease across the Mekong Delta as alarming.
More than 130 ducks died of the virus in Soc Trang province in recent days, government-run television reported, hours after officials said over 800 ducks had also died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in Tra Vinh province.
"The bird flu situation is becoming more and more complicated and alarming in the Mekong Delta," the state television report said.
It wasn’t so very long ago that Thailand and Vietnam were claming victory over the bird flu virus, insisting that their efforts had resulted in the eradication of the virus from their shores.
Times flies, and apparently, so do infected birds.
