H5N1 appears to be spreading in Egypt. Via Reuters: Bird flu re-emerges in Egyptian poultry after lull. Excerpt:
Egypt has detected four new cases of bird flu in poultry, the first infections found in two months of a disease that has killed six people in the country this year and wracked its poultry industry, officials said on Monday.
Three of the cases were found late last week in so-called "backyard", or domestically bred, poultry in the Egyptian capital while a fourth was detected in a village near the southern city of Sohag, an agriculture ministry official said.
The cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus were the first detected in birds in Egypt in roughly two months. Egypt has had the largest cluster of human bird flu cases outside of Asia.
No human cases have been reported since May.
"It is significant," Hassan el-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance at the World Health Organisation, said of the new poultry cases. "It tells us that the virus is still circulating."
Bird flu infected 14 Egyptians, killing six, between March and May after the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry in February.
