Three Egyptians die of bird flu, raising death toll to six

CAIRO – ArabTelegraph – Three people have died from H5N1 bird flu in Egypt in the past week, bringing the death toll in the country this year to six, the Egyptian health ministry said on Monday.

Egypt has identified 11 cases of the virus in people this year including the six who have died, a ministry statement said.

It identified the most recent victims as a 40-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman in the central province of Minya as well as a 25-year-old woman in Beni Suef, south of Cairo.

A two-year-old child in Minya hospitalised recently for the virus had recovered, it said.

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), from 2003 through until October 2, 2014, there have been 668 laboratory-confirmed human cases of H5N1 infection officially reported from 16 countries. Of these cases, 393 have died.

The WHO warns that whenever bird flu viruses are circulating in poultry, there is a risk of sporadic infections or small clusters of human cases – especially in people exposed to infected birds or contaminated environments.

Human cases of H5N1 are rare, however, and the virus does not currently appear to transmit easily from person to person.

Egypt’s H5N1 cases have largely been found in poor rural areas in the south, where villagers, particularly women, tend to keep and slaughter poultry in the home.

Two people died within days of each other last month – a 30-year-old woman from Minya and a 19-year-old woman in the southern region of Assiut.