Mar 27, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Egypt reported two more human cases of H5N1 avian influenza today, pushing the country's total to 29, while Indonesia reported three suspected cases, two of them fatal, according to news services.
Egyptian officials said the two patients were a 6-year-old girl from the southern province of Qena and a 5-year-old boy from Minya in central Egypt, according to a Reuters report today. They represent the 10th and 11th cases reported this year.
Both children tested positive yesterday after being hospitalized with a high fever, and both were in stable condition, Amr Kandeel, head of communicable disease control for the health ministry, told Reuters. He attributed both cases to exposure to dead birds.
The two latest cases come 2 days after the announcement of a case in a 3-year-old girl from Aswan in southern Egypt. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognized her case today, saying she remained in stable condition in a hospital.
The WHO said the 3-year-old had contact with backyard poultry, and her case was not linked epidemiologically with two other recent cases in Aswan, announced Mar 19 and 20. Those cases involved a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.
In Indonesia, initial tests indicated H5N1 infection in a 22-year-old female university student who died Mar 24 and a teenage boy who died Mar 25, according to an Agence France-Presse report today, citing a spokeswoman for the government's avian flu information center. Further test results were awaited.
In addition, a 39-year-old man had a positive preliminary test and was being treated in Surabaya, capital of East Java, the story said. But a Jakarta Post report quoted an official with Soetomo state hospital in Surabaya as saying the man's case was confirmed.
The teenage boy was from West Java and the 22-year-old woman from southeastern Sumatra, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report today. The story said state media reported the woman had a large number of cats.
By the WHO count, Indonesia has had 81 H5N1 cases with 63 deaths. But since Jan 29, Indonesia has reported at least six cases (besides those reported today) that have not yet been recognized by the WHO; four of those were fatal.
See also:
Mar 27 WHO statement on 3-year-old patient in Egypt
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_03_27/en/index.html
