We need volunteers for Northern Africa; Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara. If you have any information pertainging to bird flu, H5N1 human, mystery illnesses, ect., that you think might help, please add your name, and let’s get this wagon moving.
I am not volunteering for this Lookout Post - going to work closer to home (NZ) but I do have this link that you might find useful. It is the official bird flu website in Egypt - started during the outbreak earlier this year. Cheers.
AnnieB-
thanks. I have a few sites, but always welcome more. New Zeland. How cool. Bet it’s beautiful.
new zealand geeze. anyhow thanks
more links on africa, with news and reports not often seen in massmedia, this is the people on the frontline
Medecines sans Frontieres http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/countries/africa/index.cfm
Urdar-Norway thanks. need every link we can find. Have not been able to find any news/current news yet. will keep looking. Thanks again.
Checked all my links. No new news. Egypt not reporting any more new cases of bird flu, poultry or human. Hope it continues to be quiet. Have a great day.
Found this a while ago. still nothing current from Egypt.
Egypy Minister warns of winter flu upsurge 17 Oct.06 Cairo-Egyptioan Health Minister Hatem Al Gagali said on Tuesday he feared a fresh spate of human bird flu cases this winter. “We just hope they won’t be fatal.” he told parlimant. “The population still regrains from informing the authorities when poultry is infected, especially in domestic rearings,” he added. Health officals announced last week that the highly pathofenic H5N1 strain of bird flu had been detected in a 39 year old woman from the Northern Delta province of Gharbija. Gabali said her condition was stable. Her infection brought to 15 the number of human bird flu cases since the virus was first detected in Febuary in Egypt. Six cases turned out to be fatal and eight people recovered after being treated with amiflu, maki9ng Egypt which is located on a major route for migratory birds, the hardest hit non asian country in the world.
cottontop, where are you finding your news sources?
Karina
katrina here’s what I have: newsyahoo.com news.google.com thretideonline.com promedmail.com I’m trying to find more. Hope this helps.
Karina – at 18:17 you might want to look at this old thread:
http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.TheTopTenBirdFluNewsLinks
about news links.
All is quiet in Northern Africa. No update on the latest 39 year old woman’s condition from the Norhern Delta province.
Have a great day
Nothing new for this morning.
Have a great day.
Thanks for all the hard work everybody! I saw several reports of new cases in Egypt posted on Flutrackers by Theresa. I tried to get the link, but it showed a “page not found” for me, so I thought some of you , who are more computer literate than me, could go check it out and copy and paste? I hope Flutrackers does not mind. One article reports a new case of 28 year old Female-hospitalized. Today theresa posted about 2 ( I think) children being hospitalized, area residents are in panic.-It’s at Flutrackers-Africa forum.
Worrywart - here is a copy of the last entry in the Flutrackers thread - special thanks to them.
(It is ages since I have visited that thread and there have certainly been some (positive) changes)
Google-translated from Arabic:
Panic Bank of avian flu outbreaks Oct 26, 2006
There is a state of panic among citizens enough after the seizure of the child Basma Essam seven months yesterday on suspicion Bismnod ÈÇäÝáæäÒÇ infected birds. The bodies of the Ministry of Health had seized two cases in the last few hours and another case a few days ago have been transferred to the Abbasiya Hospital of the gravity of their situation. The Ministry of Health issued strict instructions to the health departments nationwide not to issue any statements on the epidemic only after consulting the ministry spokesman!! [their emphasis] On the other hand, the Department of Health to take preventive action to ensure that the transition of the epidemic Mkhalten and take samples for examination in the central labs.
AnnieB-that was quick! thanks so much!
Have not been able to find any new news this morning. the link above showed page error. If egypt has new cases my news sources would have picked it up. If this is true, wouldn’t surprise me because of Sudan.
Have a great day everyone
From the above posted article “ The ministry of health issued strict instructions to the health departments nationwide not to issue any statements on the epidemic, only after consulting the misnistry spokesman!” this may explain why this has been removed and why other artcles are not out on these cases yet.
I asked my friend from Jordan to translate the Panic Bank of avian flu outbreaks Oct 26, 2006 article. this is his short translation: A 7 years old girl may have a serious case of a bird flu. Also, the health ministry held 2 people with similar cases in the last few hours and another person few days ago
Sorry, correction: A 7 month old girl. my friend misread.
okay something is going on in Eygpt,Oct 13, 2006
The epidemic is still spreading in Dakahlia governorate, and poisoning stunned relatives Qaliubia, bird flu threatens the lives of the people of Western, and fear Aswan own families for fear of transmission of cholera in the country, after the appearance of cases of the epidemic on the Sudanese border. This is up the Nile from Cairo. Read this thread at FT and then add the latest one Annie B posted. http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11647
hemorrhagic symptoms are involved with Avian Flu not lead poisoning.
thanks for posting an update Siam. We should hear about this soon-if not, I would be very concerned.
don’t for get this from AnnieB’s post The Ministry of Health issued strict instructions to the health departments nationwide not to issue any statements on the epidemic only after consulting the ministry spokesman!!
No current or new, news found for today. Egypt still hasn’t updated their gov. site, since 10/10/06. No current news on the food poisoning, ect., either.
It’s another rainy day here. We are condering the “ark” idea, we’ve gotten so much rain.
Have a great day everyone.
Dr. Niman has two posts regarding Egypt this month, on the 22nd and 27th. Do you want those here? The second one is titled “Suspect Cases in Egypt Continue to Grow.”
UTmon- Hey, welcome aboard! Any help will be greatly appreciated. We need more news links, as I am having a heck of a time finding them. Anything pertaining to Egypt, (northern Africa) should be posted here, so we can have a record and it helps to keep track of events.
Thanks for your help. Hope to here from you on a regular basis.
OK- Here it goes (I’ve never used tiny url before)
http://tinyurl.com/swb6j “M230I Alteration Near H5N1 Receptor Binding Doman in Egypt” http://tinyurl.com/y64tae “Suspect Cases in Egypt Continue to Grow.”
UTmom-
WOW! Are they saying what I think they are? That there has been a change to the strain as far as infectability goes? Really need someone to translate scientific stuff, such as I just read. And, found out the reason for the news blackout there; they just didn’t report it. Knew I couldn’t be missing everything I’ve been searching for. This is some really good information, UTmom. Thanks fo much. Before to much longer, we’ll be great newshounds like Pixie, Commomground, Influenza2, AnnieB, and all the rest who are relentless in their quest for “the news”.
cottontop:
Yes, Niman is saying that the srain in Egypt (at least the one found in the latest female-39 victim) has aquired a new change (M2301) that can make it more easily transmissible.
Because this version of H5N1 already has the polymorphism that likes humans and lets the virus replicate at a lower temperature (PB2627K) the addition of any change that leads to greater ease of transmissibliity is not a good one. Niman’s calling for release of further Egyptian sequences to see how much of this M2301 is around.
Right now there are 5 clades of H5N1 circulating around the globe. I explained this to my daughter by comparing the clades to members of a family that all have the same last name, but are different brothers and sisters, with genetic similarity but individual variances. Each of the 5 clades of H5N1 can continue to change as long as they are still circulating. Some changes are worse than others, and anything that leads to greater tranmissibility is worst of all.
Don’t get overly worried at the moment, though. Another change near an important receptor binding domain in Turkey (the S227K that Niman had predicted) did manage, with a lot of intervention, to burn itself out last winter (although not before we saw some large clusters of cases).
Seventh Egyptian dies of bird flu - agency
“An Egyptian woman died of bird flu on Monday, bringing the total number of human deaths in Egypt to seven, the state news agency MENA said.
The victim was a woman from the Nile Delta town of Samanoud who had slaughtered and handled domestic poultry, it said. It was the first human death in Egypt the from the virus since May. “
Health hazards galore’ Egypt Reem Leila investigates the recent outbreaks of avian flu as well as salmonella
World experts meet in Cairo to tackle health needs of developing nations
Comment regarding my post at 12:51
The above article is one that I had posted earlier today on the news thread. It refers to the woman who died today as being in stable condition. So sad to hear that she has died.
Suspect H5N1 Patients in Egypt Continue to Increase Recombinomics Commentary October 30, 2006
A suspected case of human bird flu has been reported in the northern Egyptian governorate of Gharbiyah, raising the number of possible infected humans in the area to five, al-Ghomhuria reported, citing a local hospital.
A 23-year-old woman in the city of Tanta was suspected of having symptoms of avian flu and was transported to a local hospital
General Information about Tanta:
Tanta is Egypt’s fifth largest city (the largest in the Delta) and is located 94 km (59 miles) north of Cairo and 130 km (81 miles) southeast of Alexandria, in the heart of the Gharbiya province. There are about 335,000 people in Tanta and a major university is located here. Tanta is reached by the Damietta branch of the Nile and northwest and by way of Birket el-Sab.
This city comes to life in late October at the end of the cotton harvest. About two million people from around the Delta and other parts of the Arab world come for the Moulid of Sayid Ahmed el-Badawi, which is an eight day celebration.
So far all I have found in Egypt, is that the woman who died (this week?), her family is being tested.
And we might add that the WHO officially confirmed this woman’s death yesterday. The 7th fatal case out of 15. Link: WHO
ALGERIA
The government says the seasonal flu vaccine presents no toxicity - there had been a scare about the vaccine following the death of a few people in Israel after having had the jab.
The article mention that 700 000 doses are available as requested by pharmacists […!…!], against 400 000 last year.
I have checked Algeria’s population on Wikipedia: estimated at 32,930,091 as at July 2006 estimate. So, if my calculations are right, the vaccine dose will cover 2.13 per cent of the population […!…!]. I wonder who’s going to get the bulk of the jabs, children, old people, health care workers, PTB????
Source for the above Xinhuanet
This is the official Egyptian Government website on bird flu. It’s subtitled “All You Need to Know About Bird Flu.” Could be called “All We Want You to Know About Bird Flu.”
http://birdflu.sis.gov.eg/html/index.htm
Today’s three articles feature the government tell everyone that “everything’s under control.” I suspect that this is NOT a good source for accurate news.
UTmom- I check that wesite every morning and it has not be updated since the 10th. The same news on that applet has been there since I started this thread. It is maddening. It isn’t maintained because “everything is under control”, your right. Thanks for confirming what I have thought.
Has anyone heard anything else out of Egypt? I saw these stories a few days ago, but have heard nothing since.
It doesn’t mention the illness but this one set off some internal alarms for some reason. Maybe it’s the fact that she made it so far (Egypt?) and died of something here.
http://wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=963567
ROCKVILLE, Md. — An unidentified woman found last month at a Metro station has died, and Montgomery County Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying her.
The woman died Thursday and was found unconscious and suffering from a life-threatening illness two weeks ago at the Shady Grove metro station, police say.
She remained hospitalized until her death, but did not allow doctors to treat her and showed signs of mental illness, police say.
Police say the woman suffered from amnesia and referred to herself as “Happy Richard” and had recently arrived from Egypt.
Anyone with information should call the Montgomery County Police’s non-emergency number at 301–279–8000.
You know, it is interesting, maybe, just in a “Hmmmm” sort of way, that the schools in Yancey County North Carolina were all closed yesterday due to a massive outbreak of flu. Probably nothing. But…Yancy county only looks to be a few hours from Rockville by car.
‘Mystery disease attacking North level’
October 31, 2006
Mysterious Disease moved from Delta to the north of Upper attacked Beni Suef Governorate.
A1 specialist hospital received dozens of cases of infected Balke severe diarrhea and left most precious except Yusuf Hassan 70 years.Generations of Ramadan and 14 months, and Jamal Mohammed Jamal, Ziad Abdel-Moneim just saw where Nafisa Joseph lying in the Intensive Care Unit since the first day of Eid Al-Fitr.
The Directorate of Health imposed and the executive organs conservatism blockade severely injured and the families of diagnosis was the same in all cases and failed to stop diarrhea medicines and excessive speeds, in most cases, while failing to cases where there is still detained in hospital.
November 3, 2006
‘Verdict not unanimous’
Reem Leila investigates the culprit behind the salmonella outbreak which still threatens some governorates
Reports of people falling sick and dying from sewage-contaminated water in 11 villages in Daqahliya governorate made the rounds in recent weeks, but conflicting statements by officials about the reasons behind the infections raised even more concern about disease outbreak in Egypt.
<snip>
“Only 35 per cent of the samples were contaminated with sewage water,” explained El-Oteify, stressing that the water composition complies with international standards. In his mind, potable water is innocent of spreading the disease because it is “impossible” for sewage water and drinking water to mix. El-Oteify’s theory is that the culprit in Daqahliya is food contamination, not polluted water. All those admitted to hospital had eaten fruit contaminated with pesticides, as samples taken from their stomachs have shown. Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that there was no cholera outbreak in Daqahliya as was first reported in the press, but the WHO office in Cairo declined to comment on government statements about the disease outbreak.
<snip>
Comment:
Egypt is divided into 27 Governorates.
The news articles above refer to illness in both the Daqahliya Governorate and Beni Suef Governorate.
Wikipedia provides a map numbering each of the 27 Governorates.
‘Bird flu to remain major threat for next decade: UN ’
By AFP First Published: November 3, 2006
CAIRO: Avian influenza is likely to remain a significant global threat for animals and humans for the next decade, top UN coordinator David Nabarro said Thursday.
“The virus is likely to be with us for the five or ten years to come,” he told AFP in an interview.
According to the UN’s health agency, the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has been confirmed in 256 humans worldwide since the first outbreak in 2003. It was lethal in at least 152 cases.
Nabarro, who was tasked last year by the world body with containing the crisis, warned that the international community had to remain on high alert for the possible mutation of the virus into one communicable between humans.
“The risk of a mutation to cause pandemic is still very much there,” he said. “As long as the virus is present in birds, there will also be a threat of sporadic human infection, and a possibility of a mutation which would cause at the end of the day a pandemic.”
“Trying to estimate the potential mortality of a pandemic is very hard. What I’ve already said is that you could have of range of between five and 150 million” deaths, said Nabarro.
“It’s the reason why I do think we a have to put now plenty of energy towards a long term reform of the poultry farming techniques, in order to reduce the risks of human infection.”
Nabarro said frequent occurrences of sporadic human infections meant the virus would not be eliminated for some time, but he voiced his hope that efforts deployed to combat the virus in recent months would have increased preparedness for a pandemic.
“The difference now is that countries all over the world are much more geared up to deal with this phenomenon than they were a year ago. It gives me some hope that when the virus appears in a new country, it can be controled,” he said.
On a recent visit to Cairo to attend a global health research forum, Nabarro praised the Egyptian authorities’ performance in handling the bird flu outbreak.
With seven lethal human cases in less than a year, Egypt is the hardest-hit non-Asian country.
No new news from egypt or the rest of northern africa, that I can find at this hour.
have a great day everyone.
Any news from Egypt?
Egypt
Government formulates strategy to combat potential bird flu pandemic
By Sarah El Sirgany First Published: November 8, 2006
Migratory season arouses concerns over a recurrence of last year’s battle with avian flu
CAIRO: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif chaired a meeting Monday with the national committee for combating bird flu to map out a strategy should a pandemic hit Egypt.
According to the World Health Organization, “The world may be on the brink of another pandemic.”
Since the first outbreak of the avian flu H5N1 strain in 1997, the organization has documented a total of 256 infected human cases, 152 of which have died.
The government has reported 15 human cases so far, seven of which were fatal. The last victim died late last month.
“Should H5N1 evolve to a form as contagious as normal influenza, a pandemic could begin,” reads the WHO website that warns of the inadequate supply of vaccines and antiviral drugs at the start of the potential pandemic.
Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Sayed El-Abasi told The Daily Star Egypt that the ministry has numerous plans to combat the spread of the virus. He didn’t, however, provide details.
The meeting came in the light of the upcoming bird migration season, due in Egypt during the period from December to February. The migration is believed to be the source of virus transmission inside the country.
The outbreak that swept through Egypt last year coincided with the migration season.
“It’s an animal virus. We have to accept that,” Talib Ali, regional animal health and production officer for the UN-affiliate Food and Agriculture Organization, told The Daily Star Egypt.
He explained that the danger lies in the possibility of the virus mutating so that it could be transmitted from human to human.
Last year to cope with the onslaught of the illness, the government established a special committee to combat bird flu. The birds on numerous poultry farms were executed on the grounds that they were infected.
The poultry industry suffered major financial losses. A number of its professionals demonstrated, demanding compensation.
The government, however, won’t change the procedure it adopted last year, according to Rady. Additionally, the government will keep in mind that the situation might turn into a pandemic, he told local press.
Domestic poultry remains an issue. Most fatalities in Egypt were the result of direct contact between humans and domestic poultry.
In spite of efforts to control it, the widespread practice of home-raising poultry persists. Backyard farms produce a third of the country’s poultry production, according to Ali.
“Food security,” is at the top of the list of concerns, added Ali.
Recognizing the infeasibility of eliminating backyard production, especially since it is the main source of food for many low-income families, he recommends a number of procedures.
He suggests educating these families about hygienic cooking, providing them with vaccinations and compensating them for infected poultry.
More Bird Flu In Egyptian Poultry
Notice to prepare for twelve week sheltering-in-place has been removed from the Tunisia consulate website. Link now takes you to a generic pandemic prep page, advising you visit other links.
Makes one kinda nostalgic for ye ole days of snail mail by freighter…
Pixie — at 07:55 - Why do I still see it then? Tunis 12-weeks advisory - Penultimate paragraph, third sentence = “sheltering in place” for an extended period of time – up to twelve weeks.
You are absolutely right, FrenchieGirl - in your link it is still there, right where you indicate it is.
New Bird Flu Cases Discovered in Egypt
Four Egyptians were admitted to hospital Thursday in the southern governorate of Sohag on suspicion of contracting the bird flu virus, according to newspaper reports Friday.
The victims ranged between nine months and 18 years and were sent to the Sohag general hospital and the regional university hospital.
Blood samples were taken from the four and sent to be tested in the central labs of the ministry of health.
Thank you Nimbus
closed and continued here