Bird flu strikes Egypt, Israel

People have died of H5N1 bird flu in Egypt, while Israel reported the death of 15 000 turkeys due to the virus. Picture: Phil Noble

People have died of H5N1 bird flu in Egypt, while Israel reported the death of 15 000 turkeys due to the virus. Picture: Phil Noble

Published Jan 20, 2015

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Egypt – An Egyptian woman and child have died of H5N1 bird flu, the health ministry said on Monday. The two, in unrelated cases, were the fourth and fifth persons to die of the illness in the country this year.

The six-year-old child died in Minya province on Monday evening, after a 47-year-old woman succumbed to the disease in Assiut province earlier in the day, ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.

Meanwhile Israel has reported the first cases of a highly pathogenic bird flu virus in nearly three years in a village in the northern district of Hazafon, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday.

The deadly H5N1 virus caused the death of 15 000 birds at a turkey fattening farm in Avi’el, south of Haifa, the OIE reported on its website, citing data submitted by Israel’s ministry of agriculture.

In 2011, 62 human H5N1 cases and 34 deaths were reported from five countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, and Indonesia.

Six countries – Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam – have widespread and ongoing infections in their poultry. Poultry outbreaks have occurred in other countries recently as well.

Since 2003, 650 human infections with highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses have been reported to the World Health Orgranisation (WHO) by 15 countries. About 60 percent of these people died from their illness.

Reuters

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