# 2316
Egypt hasn't reported a human infection from the H5N1 bird flu virus since last April. The official number of cases in Egypt has remained at 50 - with 22 fatalities - since that time.
Today, there are several reports in the Arabic press that strongly intimate that they have detected a new human case - that of a 45 year-old woman who has been hospitalized and given Tamiflu.
No official announcement has been made by Egyptian authorities nor is there any update on their Bird Flu site as of this posting.
The Health Ministry's Bird Flu page is woefully out of date, with the statistics page still reporting only 36 human cases to date.
Given the vagaries of machine translations, and the lack of official confirmation - despite the newspapers calling this the 51st case - we probably need to consider this a suspect case.
Hopefully we'll get more detailed information, including test results, from the Egyptian authorities soon.
The following three stories from from Pugmom, who posted them on the Flu Wiki..
First, this article which appeared today on Al-Kayma.com.
Egyptian medical sources revealed the new infections of bird flu today, Saturday, the city of Tanta in the Western province, bringing the number of people infected by the disease to 51 since it was discovered in humans in February 2006.
An official Egyptian medical declined to be named, told United Press International that he was found injured Huda Noah (45 years) from the village of Tanta Kmsheec Center for HIV, "HP 1 to 5", that causes bird flu, was transferred to a hospital admitted Tanta.
The official pointed out that Ms. affected were given the drug "Tamiflu", and placed in intensive care, noting that laboratory reports are not central to the pathogenesis of Tanta so far.
The number of casualties in Egypt, the highest in Asia outside world because of the widespread practice of raising poultry at home.
Egypt came in third place in terms of the number of casualties after Indonesia and Vietnam.
Egypt, a key corridor for the transit of migratory birds between the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
And wounded more than 350 people from bird flu worldwide since its discovery in 2003 killed more than 230 of them.
Next, from elphraeen.com, we get this report.
Last update: 20/9/2008 12:43 GMT Cairo
Tanta
Pathogenesis of Tanta hospital received this morning a suspected case of bird flu to a woman called Hoda Noah (45 years) from the village of Tanta Kmsheec Center, after I was very high in temperature and pain in bone and inflammation of the throat and narrow breathing, was rushed to hospital admitted Tanta. Where a blood sample withdrawn and the appearance of the throat to be sent to the central health ministry laboratory in Cairo confirmed the injury Ms. disease.
On the other 160 birds were culled house woman, were imposed Kerdoun security to the region and clearing and execution parks adjacent to the center of birds infected at a distance of 500 meters.
For his part, Dr. Mahmoud Sharif, Deputy Minister of Health, Ms. affected were given the drug if Altamy and placed in intensive care, and noted that the reports of the central laboratory did not respond to the pathogenesis of Tanta so far.
And lastly, from the Saudi News Agency, we get this report.
General / bird flu in Egypt / human cases
Cairo 21 Ramadan 1429 AH September 21, 2008 WAS
Britain's Ministry of Health in Egypt in the emergence of a new human case of bird flu, a 45-year-old woman West province.
The official said the Egyptian Health Ministry in a statement today that the Directorate of Medical Affairs Western Province received notification from the hospital admitted the arrival of Mahala housewife called Huda Noah Shish share the status of the village of Tanta suffer from very high temperature and bone pain after taking a sample of blood for analysis labs Central show bird flu.
They noted that the Directorate decided to form teams of health and veterinary inspection of the farm household and village nests and analysis for birds and the execution of his evidence the virus.
While these reports would seem a strong indication that Egypt has recorded case number 51, we will need to wait for something a little more solid than a statement by an `unnamed Egyptian medical official' to be certain.
Stay tuned.
And now, a brief word about how these stories end up in this blog.
Each and every day a small army of dedicated volunteers take hours out of their lives to scan the hundreds of foreign language news reports that fly across the Internet - looking for bird flu related stories.
The work is tedious, exacting, and difficult. It requires more than a passing understanding of various languages and cultures.
These newshounds not only find these stories, they translate them (sometimes word-by-word using a dictionary, but usually with a machine translator), and then they often provide expert analysis to go along with them.
Pugmom provided the three stories above, but she is not alone in this endeavor. She is one of at least a couple of dozen newshounds who regularly post on the various flu forums.
Once found, these stories are then widely shared between the forums.
The only reward these newshounds receive is knowing they are doing an important job, and our appreciation.
Much of what I do I couldn't do without their considerable efforts.
My thanks go to each and every one of them.
