Bird flu deserves its own thread for tracking suspected and confirmed cases. It's not the pandemic virus, but it is still an ongoing and significant threat because of its virulence. As Margaret Chan, the Director General of the WHO says, we do not know how H5N1 will react under pressure from the pandemic virus, H1N1. All of the countries with endemic H5N1 are also reporting cases of swine flu. As everyone should know by now, the new concern revolves around what will happen if the two viruses co-infect the same host. Flu viruses exchange genetic material with each other all of the time. Right now we have a pandemic virus that is very transmissible, but does not kill the majority of people infected. Bird flu, on the other hand has a case fatality ratio (CFR) of around 60%.
In the past year, something different began to happen in Egypt. We started seeing many cases of young toddlers infected with mild cases of bird flu there. But, we also saw some older children and adults that had fatal cases. No one has yet explained why the disease began to change in Egypt. Just prior to the beginning of the swine flu cases appearing in the US and Mexico, the WHO was going to send in a team to Egypt to investigate why this was so. And, then the swine flu pandemic began in earnest, leaving this question unanswered. Why this situation has changed in Egypt but not in Indonesia, is most likely very important information.
Egypt continues to try to isolate swine flu cases. At some point, they won't be able to contain that virus, and will have to bow to the inevitable. Nobody knows what will happen then, but the Egyptians are clearly concerned. Remember, this is the country that slaughtered its entire pig population a few months ago to international dismay. Maybe they were right to do so, as we are now finding swine flu in pigs in Canada, Argentina and Australia. Pigs, the perfect mixing vessels for influenzas, may have been harboring the current swine flu for years undetected because they are almost never tested in most countries unless they are sick. This lack of disease surveillance is now being compensated for by a heightened awareness and increased testing of pig herds in many countries.
With all of that being said, here is a translation regarding a new case of bird flu, H5N1 in another child in Egypt. They do not state the child's age in this article, and some translations are saying that this is a male child. They would have isolated her anyway with bird flu, but with swine flu also in Egypt, they are likely to be very worried. Descriptions of these cases almost always mention dead birds being found in the same location. That of course, is going to be helpful in determing which flu they are dealing with at least for now, but maybe not later...
D. Abdel-Rahman Shahin, official spokesman of the Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health on Sunday, a new human case of bird flu, a girl from a province of Kafr el-Sheikh for a total of 82 case of injuries so far.
A statement by the Ministry of Health said on Sunday that the new situation of the girl child is Muhammad Mustafa Ahmed Rania from the village of "Sidi Ghazi," the Department of Kafr El-Sheikh governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh.
The statement pointed out that the disease developed symptoms on July 24 of this hospital was incorporated in fevers of Kafr el-Sheikh on July 25 with a high temperature, running nose and cough after exposure to dead household birds, suspected of being infected with bird flu.
He also pointed out that the statement was given the drug "Tamiflu" as soon as the suspicion of being infected with the disease and her condition is stable and satisfactory communications are being carried out and procedures for the transfer to the hospital in the capital Cairo for the completion of treatment.
