Tick, Tick, Tick - 10th Human H5N1 Death In Egypt

Egypt - A country that is geographically located to be a major route for migratory birds and one of the nation states worst hit by the virus outside Asia. Image Credit: BBC NEWS

In another case of Cluck-N-Quack [A Mole], ducks are the source of the infection.

This represents the third country to report bird flu attacks this season. Further, this H5N1 attributed death is the third human death since Sunday, December 24th, 2006.

Excerpts from BBC NEWS -

Egypt reports 10th bird flu death
BBC News - Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 15:08 GMT

A 26-year-old man has died in Egypt of bird flu after testing positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus.

Reda Abdel Halim Farid is the 10th person to die of bird flu in Egypt - and the third to die since Sunday.
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A girl aged 15 died on Monday and a 30-year-old woman on Sunday. All three were from an extended family living in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya.

They are said to have shared one house with 30 other family members, raising poultry in the town of Zifta, about 80km (50 miles) north of Cairo.
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A World Health Organization (WHO) official said the family raised ducks, and that members had become infected after slaughtering the flock in an effort to stem the spread of the H5N1 virus.

Three of the family's ducks had died of the virus, WHO confirmed.

Government officials had hoped an initial outbreak of H5N1 among poultry in February had been contained and would not further affect the country's food supply.
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"When we had a period of calm between May and October, people started thinking the disease was over, but we insisted on creating more awareness among the people," Abdel Rahman Shaheen [Egypt's health ministry advisor] said.

"We are still expecting more cases but the idea is to keep them to the smallest possible number."

In the Middle East, the disease is also known to be present in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Reference Here>>

Judging from the list of infected countries above, we at MAXINE don't know what to fear most from the Middle East ... Nuclear Proliferation or Bird Flu ... Islamo-Terrorism will just have to take a seat!