A recent flurry of human H5N1 influenza cases in Egypt continued with at least four more over the past 5 days, along with two deaths, according to media and government reports.
Egypt's ministry of health (MOH) today announced a case of H5N1 avian influenza in a 3-year-old boy in Giza governorate, bringing the country's 2014 total to 27 cases, according to a machine-translated statement posted by FluTrackers.
The MOH also reported the death from H5N1 of a 30-year-old woman from Ashmun, Monofia governorate, raising Egypt's H5N1 death toll this year to 11.
Egypt's ministry of health (MOH) has announced another H5N1 avian influenza infection, this one in a 51-year-old man from Assiut governorate who is hospitalized, according to the ministry's translated statement posted today by Avian Flu Diary. The latest case lifts Egypt's total this year to 26, 10 of which were fatal, the MOH said.
The nation's flu markers showed another sharp spike last week, with all 10 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regions reporting that clinic visits for flu-like illness were above their baselines.
Overall, the percentage of doctor's visits for flu-like illness climbed from 3.7% to 5.5% last week, while the percentage of respiratory samples that were positive for flu increased from 25.9% to 28.1%
Chinese researchers who tested 225 close contacts of H7N9 influenza patients found that about 10% of them carried antibodies suggesting they had been infected with the virus without getting sick, according to a letter yesterday in Emerging infectious Diseases.
China today reported the world's second known human case of H5N6 avian flu, in a 58-year-old man in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said.
The first case, in early May, was in Sichuan province and proved fatal.
The current H5N6 patient is hospitalized in critical condition in Guangzhou, the CHP said in a press release. His close contacts have shown no sign of illness.
An H5 avian flu virus strikes a large poultry flock in Vietnam, while H5N8 resurfaces in Germany.
An H5N8 influenza virus has been detected in a backyard poultry flock in southwestern Oregon, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) reported today, just 3 days after H5N8 and H5N2 viruses were found in wild birds in neighboring Washington.
In the latest gain-of-function (GOF) research news, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has allowed five such studies involving a mouse model for MERS-CoV and two influenza studies to continue after a 2-month moratorium, NPR reported today.
The Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak related to mung bean sprouts has grown by 24 cases since the CDC's last report on Dec 4, bringing the total to 111 cases in 12 states, according to yesterday's CDC update.
