Thursday, June 07, 2012

WHO: Egypt Announces New H5N1 Case

 

 

 

# 6371

 

Although we don’t have a lot of details available with this report, the World Health Organization has posted a notification from the Egyptian Ministry of Health of their 10th H5N1 infection of 2012 – that of a 4 year-old girl from Kfr -Elsheikh governorate

 

Of note, this case occurred in late April, and the girl was treated and then released from the hospital on May 7th, but is only just now being reported.

 

This raises the question as to whether the child was suspected to have avian flu at the time of her hospitalization.

 

On rare occasions – such as we saw last January (see WHO Avian influenza - situation in Egypt – update) – H5N1 cases have only been identified after-the-fact through routine testing of flu virus samples collected from sentinel flu sites.

 

 

 

In any event, here is the WHO update:

 

Avian influenza – situation in Egypt – update

7 June 2012 - The Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt has notified WHO of a new case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.

 

The case is a four year-old female from Kfr -Elsheikh governorate. She developed symptoms on 25 April 2012, was admitted to a hospital on 26 April 2012 and received oseltamivir treatment upon admission. She was discharged from the hospital on 7 May 2012.

 

Investigations into the source of infection indicated that the case had exposure to backyard poultry.

The case was confirmed by the Central Public Health Laboratories and the Naval Medical Research Unit 3 (NAMRU-3), a WHO reference laboratory.

To date, a total of 168 cases have been confirmed in Egypt, of which 60 have been fatal.

 

Cumulative number of confirmed human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) reported to WHO

 

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