#1432
(Blogging on the Road with an uncooperative laptop.)
For a third time in a week, an Egyptian woman has succumbed to the H5N1 virus in what is both a tragic and worrisome turn of events.
If you will recall, in December of 2006 and January of 2007 Egypt saw a string of bird flu fatalities. Then, later in the spring, they saw a long string of milder infections, primarily among young children, most of whom recovered.
Questions over Tamiflu resistance and viral mutations were raised in January of 2007. At least two victims were found to have suffered from a virus that was moderately resistant to oseltamivir, according to the WHO.
There is also word of another suspected human case in Cairo, but details are sketchy at this time.
CAIRO, Dec 31 (Reuters) - An Egyptian woman who had been in contact with sick birds died of the avian influenza virus on Monday, the third death in the most populous Arab country from bird flu in less than a week, the Health Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement Firdaus Mohamed Hadad of Menoufia province in the Nile Delta was taken to hospital on Saturday and died early on Monday.
"She suffered from a high fever and difficulty breathing and had a pulmonary infection after coming into contact with birds suspected of being infected with avian flu," the statement said."She was placed on a respirator but died at dawn on Monday."
The death was the 18th bird flu fatality and the 43rd human case in Egypt since the deadly H5N1 virus arrived in early 2006.
It came a day after a 25-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird flu in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura. Another woman, Ola Younis, died of bird flu on Wednesday in Beni Suef province south of Cairo.
It is the third winter that the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers, when it is much less likely to spread from one carrier to another.
The government has promoted a poultry vaccination programme but coercive measures are hard to enforce.
Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston)
