Bird flu on the rise

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AS MORE cases of Avian Flu emerge, the government gears its precautionary measures aimed at containing the disease. The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) has announced that a satellite unit, currently being established, will draw maps of poultry farms as well as of poultry located inside houses. This will be done with the purpose of assisting veterinary units monitor them, as it undertakes its vaccination campaigns.

A four-year-old boy had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at the beginning of the week, two days after being admitted to hospital with fever and cold symptoms. Mohamed Mahmoud Ibrahim is the 24th person to be diagnosed with the disease since it appeared in Egypt last year, the ministry said in a statement. Thirteen of the Egyptians who have contracted the H5N1 strain since February 2006 have died.

Ibrahim, who lives in the Nile delta town of Daqahliya, is receiving medical treatment at Manshiyet Al-Bakri Children's Hospital in Cairo, the ministry said. "The boy contracted the virus from domestic birds raised by his family," Abdel-Rahman Shahin, official spokesman at the Health Ministry, said. Most of those infected have been women or girls who look after chickens and turkeys kept in the backyard of Egyptian homes.

photo: Khaled El-Fiqi