# 4353
The reporting of human H5N1 infections (and deaths) out of Egypt has been – to put it kindly – haphazard and slow at times.
If you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity you’ve probably noticed that the newshounds on the Flu Forums are often aware of new H5N1 cases in Egypt days or even weeks before they are `officially’ announced.
It is through the hard work of people like Commonground and Dutchy, Cottontop, and Twall (and many others) posting on forums like FluTrackers and the Flu Wiki that we get these translations of reports that appear in the Arabic press.
The last `official word’, posted by the World Health Organization was last Wednesday in their Situation in Egypt - update 29 announcing the infection of a 37-year-old male from Helwan District.
The tally, according to that update was: Of the 97 laboratory confirmed cases of Avian influenza A(H5N1) reported in Egypt, 27 have been fatal.
The newshounds, however, had translated reports of a new death from the virus back in January (see Egyptian Media Reports 28th H5N1 Fatality). Something that has not been reflected in the past several updates from the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
Over the past 36 hours the newshounds have once again found reports of two more infections, and at least one more death from the bird flu virus in the Arabic press.
On Thursday, Commonground on FluTrackers had a translation of a press report on case # 98, and Twall on FluTrackers had this report yesterday morning.
The death of a bird flu, a woman Menoufia
13 2010 - 16:28 Saturday, February 13th, 2010 - 16:28
Minister of Health Dr..
Hatem mountainMinistry of Health on Saturday by the death of a bird flu infected a woman at the age of 29 years of Monofia, and the Fever Hospital Shebin Following the failure in the functions of breathing.
This is is a case of human infection by No. 99 of bird flu, bringing the total number of deaths in Egypt, 30 cases of the onset of the disease in 2006 so far and this case is the third event of the death in 2010.
Granted, interpreting these translations can be a bit of a challenge, and they are of course dependent upon the accuracy of the original reporting.
Today, in a confirmation of this information, the Egyptian State Information Service has a very brief announcement on their English Language website.
A hat tip, once again, goes to Commonground.
Since these announcements have sometimes disappeared in the past, I’ve posted a screen capture.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
New bird flu fatality reported in Egypt
A new bird flu fatality was reported in Egypt Saturday, bringing the death tally to 30.
A Health Ministry statement said that a 29-year-old woman from Menoufiya governorate died from the H5N1 virus.
As many as 99 people have been diagnosed with bird flu in Egypt so far, according to the statement.
