10 dead, 22 infected with Bird Flu in Egypt this year: Health Ministry

Egypt’s Health Ministry announced the tenth fatality as a result of Bird Flu this year, a five-year-old boy from Aswan, in a press release posted on its website on Thursday.

The ministry added that 22 Egyptians have been infected with the Avian Influenza in 2014. Four of them are being treated in hospital, and eight are reported to have fully recovered.

The latest victim died on Tuesday while hospitalized in the southern governorate of Aswan. Suffering from telltale symptoms — a fever, coughing, congestion of the throat and shortness of breath, the child was admitted to hospital on December 21 and placed on a respirator, but he succumbed to his infection three days later.

The Ministry of Health clarified that most of the infections and fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the Bird Flu virus have been reported in rural parts of Egypt, primarily amongst women and children raising and/or handling live poultry.

The fatality rate amongst those infected with the Bird Flu virus in Egypt, according to the ministry, is just over 37 percent, significantly less than in other countries, which have reported fatality rates of up to 60 percent, and the worldwide average of 55 percent.

According to the ministry’s figures, a total of 195 individuals have tested positive for the Bird Flu since this virus first appeared in Egypt in 2006, out of which 74 individuals have died.

The ministry advises those in contact with live poultry to cover their noses and the birds’ mouths, and to wash their hands with soap and water after handling them.

The antiviral medication, Tamiflu, is to be administered at hospital within 24 hours to those suffering from the emergence of fever-like symptoms following the handling of poultry.

The ministry has set up a hotline – 105 – to answer questions pertaining to the Bird Flu virus, and the methods being taken to contain it in Egypt.