The H5N1 virus is a novel reassortant between a Eurasian H5N8 virus and North American avian flu strains.
No let-up has occurred over the past few days in detections of several highly pathogenic H5 avian flu strains in poultry and wild birds.
Egyptian health officials have reported the country's fourth and fifth deaths from H5N1 avian flu this year, Reuters reported today and yesterday.
The victims were a 47-year-old woman from Asyut governorate and a 6-year-old child from Minya province. Both Asyut and Minya are rural regions located in central Egypt along the Nile.
Some measures of influenza activity in the United States decreased last week, but 19 flu-related deaths in children were reported, far higher than any previous week of the season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in today's weekly update.
More than 100 farms in Taiwan have tested positive for avian flu, including a new H5N3 strain.
In the latest detection of avian flu in wild and domestic birds in Western states, Oregon officials have confirmed the H5N2 strain in a hunter-killed mallard near Eugene, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) said in a news release yesterday.
A 65-year-old woman from the city of Asyut in central Egypt has died as a result of complications from H5N1 avian flu, according to a report today from Egypt's news agency Al-Ahram. She is the country's second H5N1-related fatality this year.
Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population announced the woman's death today and also reported that a 3-year-old boy from the northern town of Beheira has recovered from H5N1.
Not surprisingly, the entire Northern Hemisphere is seeing increasing influenza activity, with H3N2 most common, but unfortunately in an antigenically drifted strain not well matched to the strain in this year's vaccine, according to an update yesterday from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The current spurt of cases might be caused by increased circulation of H5N1 in poultry and other factors.
H5N8 in Taiwan leads a long list of outbreaks in Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa.
