CAIRO: Egypt's Ministry of Health announced the 34th bird flu-related death in the country, an 18-year-old woman from Fayoum. This comes one week after Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly lauded the success of the government's plan in combating bird flu (H1N5), explaining that the death rate from the virus has substantially decreased while citizen awareness has increased. "The government has been dealing with the issue with complete transparency and sincerity, as well as a commitment to giving the highest quality treatments at the hospitals, the minister told the People's Assembly last week. The number of bird flu cases witnessed a hike in 2010; the 18-year-old is the seventh reported this year. A total of 109 cases have been reported since the virus first appeared in Egypt in 2006. Egypt's H1N5 death rate stands at 6.3 percent, lower than the global rate of 7.61 percent, the ministry said in a statement last week. Specialized committees are currently touring bird farms around the country for inspection, which led them to discover bird flu centers, according to the Information and Decision Support Center. The labs affiliated with the ministry have so far tested 11,565 cases suspected of bird flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement last Wednesday saying that bird flu outbreaks have killed seven people in several countries so far this year, which shows that the virus remains a threat to humans. "The newly confirmed human and poultry cases of avian influenza this year are a reminder that the virus poses a real and continuous threat to human health, they stated. Egypt was mentioned in the statement as one of the countries where authorities are monitoring human cases of bird flu. On the other hand, the Central Operation Room of Crisis and Disaster Management at Information and Decision Support Center at the Cabinet of Ministers, which include representatives from all ministries, have announced that swine flu has substantially decreased in Egypt since the beginning of February. However, the Ministry of Health still advised citizens to take precautionary measures against the virus.
