A SENIOR veterinary official unveiled on Saturday a new comprehensive preventive plan against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which was detected in Egypt four years ago. While monitoring compliance with governmental measures in poultry farms, Hamed Samaha, the Head of the General Authority for Veterinary Services, insists that there is no real cause for concern regarding a potential outbreak among humans. "The plan involves preventing further spread among poultry and birds as well as preventing its spread to humans, launching an awareness campaign, and providing the Authority's laboratories with the latest equipment to upgrade their services," Hamed said in press comments. “It also calls for instituting more active surveillance among the human populations living around areas affected,” he said. According to Hamed, the Authority has started enforcing internationallyrecognised veterinary guidelines and practices that have been set to cope with outbreaks of avian influenza. "These practices include the introduction of more intense surveillance schemes to detect as many cases as possible and to quickly treat human victims," he said. On Thursday, Health Ministry officials said that a 14-month-old boy had contracted bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds in Banha town, north of Cairo. Hamed expressed fear that the virus could replicate and change into a form that could be passed easily from person to person. However, he said that there was good news for efforts in the US to cope with H5N1. "These efforts included the creation of a new anti-viral treatment that proved to be more effective than the Tamiflu," Hamed said. He added that the CS-8958 was tested by US veterinary laboratories that proved it to be more effective in reducing the severity of influenza infections than Tamiflu. "Tests have proved CS-8958 can be a promising alternative antiviral for prevention and treatment of bird flu," the official said. Working with mice, the researchers learned that a single nasal dose of CS- 8958 given two hours after infection with H5N1 influenza virus resulted in a higher survival rate and lower virus levels than a standard five-day course of Tamiflu, he said.
