Egypt: H5N1 claims 2nd victim

2006-03-28 11:40

Cairo - A second person has died from bird flu, said Egyptian health minister Hatem el-Gabali on Monday.

An official from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the latest victim of the H5N1 strain was a woman who had been in a critical condition on a ventilator before her death on Monday morning.

Gabali said: "This is the second death due to bird flu in Egypt."

According to Gabali, the woman from Qaloubiyah, about 40km north of Cairo, contracted the disease after coming into close contact with infected birds. The first fatality was from the same province.

First human infection

Egypt said on Sunday that a fifth person had caught what appeared to be bird flu, but was treated with Tamiflu - the drug used to fight bird flu in humans - and was in good condition.

The government had previously said that four people had been confirmed to be suffering from the bird flu virus, which was first found in February among birds in Egypt. The first human infection appeared in mid-March.

Two of the Egyptians the government had said contracted bird flu were released from hospital on Sunday after responding well to treatment.

The first human death in Egypt from bird flu, which had spread across Asia, Africa and parts of Asia, was reported on March 18. The 30-year-old dead woman reared chickens at her home.

People could contract bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds.

Bird flu claims 100 worldwide

Scientists feared the virus, which had killed about 100 people worldwide since 2003, could mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

WHO officials said Egypt had a good bird flu-monitoring network in place with officials present in every province, but public awareness of how to avoid bird flu had to be raised.

The officials said that most of Egypt's cases so far had been among people who raised poultry in their backyards and many were not following instructions from the health ministry.

Farmers in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous state, said the poultry market - worth about 17 billion Egyptian pounds ($3bn) and supporting up to 3 million people - had been devastated.

- Reuters