Egypt: The Story Changes A Third Time
# 518
On Monday, the 26th of February, this short story appeared on the wires and I prepared to blog on it.
Egyptian woman tests positive for bird flu
Published:
02.26.07, 23:30 / Israel NewsAn Egyptian woman from the Nile Delta town of Beheira has tested positive for the bird flu virus, Egypt's state news agency MENA said on Monday.
MENA identified the woman as Samia Mansour Hashem, a housewife who raised chickens at her home. (Reuters)
Within minutes, a denial was issued by the Egyptian Health Ministry, and so I shelved my blog, a bit thankful I hadn't run with the story.
EGYPTIAN HEALTH MINISTRY OFFICIAL DENIES NEW HUMAN CASE OF BIRD
26 Feb 2007 21:40:19 GMT
CAIRO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - An Egyptian Health Ministry official denied on Monday a report by the state news agency that a woman from the Nile Delta had tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus.
"It's not true," said Amr Qandil, director of communicable diseases at the ministry. "I do not know where they got this information."
Source: Reuters
Yesterday, Egypt announced that a 4-year-old girl had the virus. No mention was made of the case previously reported.
Now this morning, on the Egyptian government's bird flu webpage, we get this, dated Wednesday, February 28, 2007.
A hat tip to Dutchy on Flutrackers for spotting this before, I believe, anyone else.
(click to see enlarged picture)
New Human Avian Flu Contraction, Confirmed
A new human bird flu case was confirmed on Monday 26/02 in Beheira governorate. A woman, identified as Samia Mansour Hashim, 31, checked in Dmanhour Fever Hospital suffering from bird flu symptoms. Blood sample of the suspect bird flu case tested positive. After her health condition deteriorated, the woman was transferred to Alexandria Fever Hospital.
She was in close contact with sick domestic poultry. Chairman of the National Council for Youths Mohammed Safi El-Din Kharboush said on Monday the council is organising a public awareness campaign against the H5N1 virus.
In press statements, he said the campaign comes as part of public service projects carried out in the Egyptian rural areas and popular districts in cooperation with the veterinary medicine units, businessmen and investors. He added that youths' centres will host vet medicine units to enlighten people with means to face diseases that spread among birds and animals and contain the infected spots. He said medical convoys will be launched in cooperation with the universities of Assiut and Helwan in March and April to fight the virus.
Are we confused yet?
While I've not seen any news wires picking up on this yet, this would seem to be a reputable source of information. It is maintained by the Egyptian Ministry of Health. For now, pending further clarification, I guess we have to assume this latest announcement is accurate.
We'll see.
Details on exactly how and why such vehement denials were issued two days ago haven't been released. Perhaps it was a simple miscommunication; someone, somewhere, didn't get the memo.
If so, it's taken nearly 48 hours to correct the problem.
It is difficult to see what advantage is to be gained by knowingly disavowing an actual case. Still, the initial reaction in the past by many officials has been to downplay, and sometimes deny, reported cases.
The good news in all of this is the press appears to have gotten the story right on Monday.
The bad news is, official credibility has taken another hit.
