Four deaths in a week have highlighted the dangers posed by Avian Influenza, reports Reem Leila Confirmation of a new outbreak of the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza came with last week's announcement of four fatalities due to the lethal virus. The victims, from the governorates of Damietta, Menoufiya and Mansoura, had all come into direct contact with infected fowl. "Specialised teams are carrying out a mass cull of infected fowl -- estimated at 22,700 birds -- across Egypt," said Ministry of Health spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shahin. Samples from people who had come into direct contact with infected birds have also been taken, leading to two positive diagnosis in Qena, one in Beheira and five in Damietta. Following a meeting on 2 January, the Supreme National Council for Combating Bird Flu (SNCCBF) declared a state of emergency across the Delta and warned that it would press for the maximum penalties against any farms that infringe regulations governing the raising of poultry. "There has been a degree of laxity because people imagined that the disease had disappeared. What we are saying is that bird flu is endemic in Egypt and will remain for several years," said Shahin. While the SNCCBF says its task is made more difficult by the large number of families that continue to raise fowl domestically it is stepping up monitoring of commercial poultry operations. Farms shown to contain infected fowl will be closed down for a minimum of six months, and the transport of birds between governorates is now forbidden. Amin Abaza, head of the SNCCBF, says the increased number of infections in recent weeks is a result of a consistent failure to apply the safety regulations currently in force. In some areas, he says, there have been reports of farmers selling on infected stock across governorates once the virus had been identified on their own farms. In an attempt to prevent what Abaza describes as a crime against both Egypt's citizens and the state, the number of security checkpoints between governorates has been increased to 100. Abaza, however, still believes that the most immediate threat is posed by domestically reared birds. During a conference on recent developments in the treatment of bird flu, Amr Qandil, director-general of the Infectious Disease Department at the Ministry of Health, repeated warnings against any laxity in dealing with the current outbreak. He reported that since the virus was first detected in Egypt on 19 March 2006, there have been 43 cases of infection among humans resulting in the death of two out of 20 infected children, 16 of the 19 cases among women and one death among the four men who have tested positive for the strain. "All the concerned authorities need to devote more efforts to raising public awareness to promote behavior change and to implement rapid training, reporting and response mechanisms involving the participation of a wide variety of stakeholders and the public-private sector," says Ahmed Abdel-Ghani El-Senousy, head of the virus department at the Veterinary Medicine Faculty and a former member of the SNCCBF. The false impression that the disease had been eradicated in Egypt was in part a result, El-Senousy believes, of the ending of public information campaigns several months ago owing to a lack of funds. While a report conducted by the Public Authority for Veterinary Services and issued by the Ministry of Agriculture suggests that outbreaks of the virus are more prevalent among birds in poultry farms than domestically bred fowl -- the report concluded that a shocking 90 per cent of the poultry farms failed to reach safety benchmarks -- the figures may be a result of the inability of veterinary teams to access houses in which birds are being reared. El-Senousy estimates that more than a third of domestic poultry has yet to be vaccinated. Owners have consistently refused to allow veterinary teams to enter their homes, a result, he says, of "a profound lack of awareness". And the problem of home-bred fowl is likely to be compounded, he warns, by the fact that unvaccinated geese and ducks can carry the virus for long periods without displaying any symptoms. The high price of the tests that are part of the SNCCBF's safety regime -- they can be conducted only in Cairo and cost up to LE500 -- has also contributed to the failure of commercial breeders to implement the checks necessary to prevent the spread of the virus. El-Senousy has called for test charges to be dropped altogether.
