Avian Flu

9/2/2010
7:15 pm

A woman in Egypt recently died of avian influenza A(H5N1). Investigators say she was exposed to sick and dead poultry. She started experiencing symptoms on August 17th and was hospitalized soon after on August 24th. At the hospital she was given oseltamivir also known as Tamiflu. This drug is commonly used to treat individuals that have had flu symptoms for a very short amount of time, usually around two days. It typically helps to stop the spread of the flu virus and shorten the time that a person will have symptoms. However this treatment was not successful with this particular case and a 33 year old female died on August 26th. There have been 112 cases reported in Egypt and of those 112, 36 have been fatal.

I was unaware that people in other parts of the world are experiencing deaths from avian flu. I remember in 2009 it was a major deal and everyone was paying attention and praying that the "bird flu" would not spread. I believe that people, as have I, forgot about this problem in other countries. It has claimed thirty six lives just in Egypt. If this were happening in the United States everyone would know about it.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_08_31/en/index.html