Saturday, April 16, 2011

WHO: Countries agree to share flu virus samples after 4 years of talks

By The Associated Press
GENEVA — The World Health Organization says countries have agreed on a deal to share flu virus samples after almost four years of fractious talks on the issue.

[click on title for full article]

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

WHO Avian influenza - situation in Egypt - update 50

The Ministry of Health of Egypt has announced four new confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.

The first case is a 20 years old female from Behaira Governorate. She developed symptoms on 14 March and was hospitalized on 19 March. She was in a critical condition and died on 28 March.

The second case is a two years old female from Menofeya Governorate. She developed symptoms on 26 March and was hospitalized on 27 March. She is still under treatment and in a stable condition.

The third case is a 55 year old female from Behaira Governorate. She developed symptoms on 20 March and was hospitalized on 22 March. She recovered and was discharged on 5 April.

The fourth case is a 1 year old male from Fayoum Governorate He developed symptoms on 20 March and was hospitalized on 28 March. He is still under treatment and in a stable condition.

All the cases received oseltamivir treatment at the time of hospitalization.

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that the cases had exposure to sick and/or dead poultry suspected to have avian influenza.

The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories, a National Influenza Center of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

Of the 141 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 46 have been fatal

China bird flu virus detected in poultry farms, health monitoring of personnel have been called for the livestock industry to enhance personal health

Source: Public Relations Office of Public Relations Date: 2011/4/13 H7N3 detected in domestic poultry farms for bird flu, disease Control Board to ensure people's health, has conducted health-related personnel and the prevention and treatment visits, there are no workers have health exception, but still ongoing work related to staff health monitoring . One after another recently detected in domestic poultry farms such as H5N2 and H7N3 avian influenza virus, coupled with numerous reports of human H5N1 influenza international sporadic cases of avian flu pandemic risk still exists

More birds destroyed in Bangladesh

Gazipur, Apr 13 (bdnwews24.com)
—A total of 17,279 poultry birds of a farm have been culled and 4,298 eggs destroyed at Gajaria in Sreepur upazila following the detection of bird flu infection. Upazila livestock officer A K M Ataur Rahman told bdnews24.com that the culling and dumping drive at Ferdous Poultry Farm began on Wednesday morning after the samples of the dead chickens were found H5N1-positive in a lab test on Tuesday.