EGYPT: Minor loses life to bird flu
Source: IRIN
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
CAIRO, 26 December (IRIN) - A 15-year-old girl became the ninth fatal victim of the avian influenza virus and the first minor to lose her life to the disease in Egypt, said
health ministry media official Sayyid Al-Abbasi. The girl, who died on Monday, was the niece of a 30-year-old woman who died from the disease on 24 December. The two lived in the same home in
Gharbiyya province, 90 km north of Cairo. Another member of the family, the woman's nephew who was also diagnosed with bird flu, is in stable condition. "But you never really know with bird flu,"
said Al-Abbasi, to show that the patient was not altogether out of danger. The family bred and lived in close quarters with domestically reared ducks infected with the potentially lethal virus. "To start with they denied they were rearing birds at home, but tests showed that they had been infected," said Al-Abbasi, adding that had they gone into hospital earlier then the two females might
have survived. Virus H5N1 was first detected among humans in Egypt in March 2006, and a month earlier among birds. The majority of infections and all of the deaths have been among people who reared
birds domestically as opposed to on farms. In response to the risk of infection by rearing birds at home, the government banned domestic poultry rearing in urban centres. However, the country's
health authorities did not impose similar restrictions in rural areas where domestic breeding is more widespread and economically vital. "A ban would lead many to conceal their birds, heightening
the danger rather than quelling it," Abdel Rahman Shahine, a health ministry official, said.Egypt's densely inhabited Nile Valley saw the worst concentration of bird flu infection this year outside
Asia. The area has a large rural population that has traditionally reared poultry for food and income, and lies on major routes for migratory birds.sa/ar
