Bird flu cases are on the rise, reports Reem Leila The Ministry of Health confirmed Egypt's 78th case of bird flu on Tuesday when a girl from a village in Kafr Al-Sheikh was diagnosed with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus. The girl had been suffering from a high temperature, running nose and breathing difficulties. She is now being treated in Manshiet Al-Bakri Hospital, Cairo. A total of 27 people have died in Egypt after contracting the H5N1 avian flu virus. The great majority of new cases are among young girls and women who tend to have responsibility for domestically reared birds. Although Egyptian scientists recently announced a new H5N1 vaccine, developed to tackle local strains of the virus, it will be some time before it is produced in commercial quantities. "Currently available vaccines have a 50 per cent success rate," says Hamed Samaha, head of the General Authority for Veterinary Services (GAVS). "It was due to the ineffectiveness of imported vaccine that last week GAVS disposed of more than 40 million infected eggs and culled 200,000 birds." Neither commercial poultry farms nor backyard breeders, complains Samaha, follow basic bio-security procedures. "This is carelessness. Being clean does not require that you spend a fortune," says Samaha. He also stresses the importance of building more poultry slaughter houses. The current capacity meets just 50 per cent of local demand. "As soon as we have enough slaughter houses slaughtered birds can be sold pre-frozen to retailers." Only 30 per cent of the country's domestically reared poultry has been vaccinated since the virus first appeared in Egypt three years ago, according Mona Mehrez, head of the Central Laboratory for Poultry Monitoring at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. "We are considering ending vaccination programmes. The vaccines are ineffective, and it has proven impossible to access all birds," says Mehrez. Domestically reared birds form 40 per cent of Egypt's fowl production and their breeders, Mehrez says, are uncooperative. "They do not report their birds, fearing they will be culled or taken away from them even if they are not infected with the virus." Experts have long feared that bird flu could mutate into a form that spreads easily between humans. The last three flu pandemics, the Spanish flu of 1918, the 1957-58 Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69, were all linked to birds, though some scientists believe pigs also played a role in 1918. Mohamed Ali, head of the research team which developed the H5N1 vaccine at the National Research Centre (NRC), stresses that the virus is constantly changing and could begin to threaten a pandemic at any time. "The best way to control the virus is either to cull all fowl or else vaccinate them with an effective vaccine," he says. Egypt uses more than one and a half billion doses of anti-bird flu vaccine each year. Hani El-Nazer, head of NRC, has announced that the Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) will be granted a period of one month to start producing the new, local vaccine. "If they do not act within the grace period then NRC will seek to coordinate with other companies to start producing the vaccine," says El-Nazer. He refutes news reports that moving to mass production could take up to a year and a half, claiming that the required quantities could be produced within 10 months. Magda Rakha, speaking on behalf of VACSERA, points out no production contracts have been entered into with the NRC. "We have a protocol of cooperation which seeks to capitalise on the Egyptian experience." She adds that any new vaccine takes time to move into commercial production since it must first gain the approval of the Pharmaceutical Product Association. "The cost of producing the new vaccine will be more than LE100 million. It is not a negligible amount and before it is committed we have to be sure the vaccine is really effective." An estimated 8.3 million rural householders raise fowl. Yet, says Samaha, Egypt has just 6,000 veterinarians. He argues that "a special fund must be created to compensate those who lose their birds either by culling or infection". "Without compensation things will get worse. In its absence both farm and backyard breeders will remain unwilling to provide information about their poultry and without accurate information there is little hope of controlling the virus."
