CAIRO: Minister of Health Hatem Al-Gabaly announced that "Egypt has one of the lowest death rates among patients with bird flu , during a press conference on Saturday, a day after the deadly virus claimed its 26th victim in Egypt. The 33-year-old Kafr El-Sheikh woman was hospitalized April 15 with a high fever and respiratory problems. She is the third to die this year from the strain. According to news reports, the World Health Organization called last month for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children. However, Mohamed Attah, an official at the health ministry's media office, denied reports that a special representative from UN's World Health Organization (WHO) visited Egypt to investigate the increase in bird flu cases. Speaking to Daily News Egypt, Attah also denied press reports about Egypt being under quarantine because of its bird flu infection record. Al-Gabaly said that the ministry has sent renewed warnings to farmers decreeing they abide by stringent safety measures to prevent catching the deadly virus. The ministry also warned that farmers caught violating the ministry's orders will be punished. Over the past year, the health ministry, in collaboration with the ministries of interior, agriculture and local development, conducted a nation-wide media campaign to educate the public on ways to protect themselves from avian flu infection. MP Ahmed Diab, former deputy of the People's Assembly's (PA) health committee, told Daily News Egypt that "the government should treat this matter objectively and neither overestimate or underestimates the situation. Last week MP Hamdy Hassan requested the questioning of the health minister on the government's methods to contain the virus. "However, until now the parliment speaker has not set an exact date for this questioning session, Diab said. "The government has not done its work in educating the public about the disease, he added. Four years have passed since the appearance of the first bird flu case in Egypt on March 20, 2006. However the number of cases increased, with four cases emerging during the last week alone, among which one death was reported. On April 24, the Ministry of Health announced the 68th case of bird flu in Tanta, where a 25-year-old woman died from the virus. The day before, the Ministry of Health had reported two other human cases, a four-year-old boy from Sohag and a 25-year-old pregnant woman from Cairo. Only a couple of days prior to that, the case of an 18-month-old child from Kafr El Sheikh emerged. According to the WHO, these infections were caused by personal contact with dead or sick poultry. Eighteen cases of bird flu were first reported in Egypt in 2006, 10 of which died. Since the start of year 2009, 17 cases were reported including two deaths. According to the WHO, since the eruption of the disease in 2006 until this month, 421 cases of bird flu in humans were reported worldwide. Of them, 257 died. In Egypt, 68 cases were reported; 25 died. Egypt is ranked sixth among the WHO's Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1), according to the WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response's (EPR) statistics, recently updated on April 23. In the meantime, MP Ali Fathi Al-Sayed filed another interrogation request to the Minister of Health about the new swine flu. On Saturday Mexican authorities announced that 81 people died in Mexico after being infected with a human strain of the swine flu, also referred to as pig flu. They reported that 1,000 other cases have been infected with the virus. The WHO advised Mexicans against congregating in public places, including schools and work places, and urged them to stay home. WHO warned on its official website that the disease could turn into pandemic. Eleven cases of infection with the virus, also known as H1N1, were reported in the US, seven in California, two in Texas, and two in Kansas. The UN organization describes the disease as a respiratory disease which initially infects pigs. Swine flu could be transmitted to humans who have direct contact with pigs. Similar to avian flu, swine flu symptoms are like normal influenza. Swine flu is airborne and thus could spread among humans.
