12 Human cases of bird flu
21/04/2006 18:18  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

4th bird flu death in Egypt Sisters cured of bird flu Egypt: H5N1 claims 2nd victim Eritrea: High risk of bird flu Egypt has bird flu Egypt bans poultry imports Egypt bans poultry imports Egypt bans bird hunting

Geneva - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Friday that there have been 12 human cases of bird flu in Egypt, four of them fatal.

The United Nations agency said that this took the global total to 113 deaths out of 204 cases since 2003.

Egyptian officials had previously announced all 12 cases, including the fourth fatality, an 18-year-old girl from a province north of Cairo who died a week ago.

In a statement, the WHO said one of its collaborating laboratories in Britain had now "fully validated" the test results obtained in Egypt.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was detected in birds in Egypt in February and the first human infection was reported in mid-March. All four victims had been women, who were often responsible for slaughtering and cooking domestic poultry.

The WHO said: "Of the 12 cases in Egypt, four patients have died and one remains hospitalised in stable condition."

It said that the remaining seven patients had fully recovered. On Thursday, the WHO said that a man in neighbouring Sudan suspected to have bird flu had now tested negative.

- Reuters

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile