Ok let's start from yesterday , this was not announced yesterday but was announced today in the newspapers
in Sharqia Governorate , 4 persons were held in the hospitals for suspicion that they got H5N1 virus , already they got the symptoms , each pair is from one family , the names and relations are the following :
- Menna Mohammed Fathy "3 years old " and her grand mother Somia EL-Sayed Awad "50 years old "
- Iman Sobhy Mohammed "25 years old" and her son Mohammed Maher Reza "They did not mention his age but I think he will not be older than 8 years old"
This is the first time this year it reaches to the kids , of course they have direct connection with the Birds , the Grand mother and the mother , and of course the poultry move inside and around the house with the Children whose immunity is weaker from the adults , let's hope they got the virus from the poultry directly and not from their mother and grand mother because this means one bloody word which is evolution
As I wrote earlier the four are from the Sharqia residents in Delta , the Sharqia already became a very hot zone that the Ministry of Agriculture had to execute 92,000 chicken in the farms at Mina El-kamah,Balbis and Abu Hamad in the Governorate
- in El-Mahalla El-Kurba at Gharbia Governorate ,two persons were held in hospital also for the suspicion of having the virus
The first is "34 years old Male " Ali El-Ashry , a Police Constable and the second is little girl Huda Khaled "2 years and a half years old " .Of course this is the first time since the outbreak that a male adult got the virus
I wish that their results turn negative especially for the little girl as if she turned to be H5N1 positive she may not live
If you think that this bad ,wait till you hear the rest of the news
It turned out in the last month of December 25 zones of the virus had appeared in Egypt in the following Governorates : Sharqia,Qalyubia,Gharbia, Monufia,Dakhalia,Cairo,Giza,Bani Sawif and Qena.
It is expected to spread in the Nile Delta and by nature it would reach Cairo and Giza but Bani Sawif and Qena are the new thing because they are in the south , especially Qena which is in the heart of Upper Egypt.
Now the WHO demands Egypt to declare the Emergency status immediately
Yes the Emergency Status should be declared according to the international Organization which does not like the pattern of spread in Egypt
and due to the international Pressure we find ourselves in front of the minister of agriculture saying that the ministry was lazy in the last couple of months and this is why the virus found its way again in Egypt according to the Daily Masry Youm , well this is part of the reason but not the whole reason why it was spread in Egypt again in this pattern. For the record it is the first time the minister of Agriculture "Abaza" confessed that there is something wrong in his ministry !!
The minister said that the ministry's campaign for the vaccination of poultry did not cover till now more than 30% from the hot zones ,of course he considered this a good percentage as according to his justification which is true somehow it is hard to reach for the domestic poultry and if you notice all people got infected this time were raising domestic poultry but of course Abaza will not be Egyptian minister if he did not say something contradicts with his ministry official reports ,as according to an official report published on the 30th of December the virus is spreading among the poultry farms more than the houses and that 90% of the farms lack the protection facilities !!
According to the report too dead chicken were found packed in plastic bags and were thrown on the Nile Shores at Qalyubia in the "Tawfiki branch"
Some anonymous Vet. working in the ministry agriculture who refused to say his name for fear of breaking the strict orders of the ministry from speaking to the Press about the crisis said that the owners of the poultry farms refuse to report any death condition in their farms for fear that the ministry would come and execute the whole farm , just like what happened in the last year where many poultry raisers had lost millions of pounds and so they do not have any other solution except to get rid from the dead chicken and throw it to the Nile ignoring the fact that throwing in the "Tawfiki branch" of the Nile spreads the virus among other farms in the area by its turn .
So it is the ministry of Agriculture's mistake for being lazy in the last couple of months
So it is the raisers' mistake for raisers for throwing the dead infected chicken in the Nile
Look before the blame game starts ,the it is spreading due to many reasons and many accumulated mistakes from both the government and the people at the same time
And this is just the start of a long day
I was thinking of coming to Egypt in the spring but...I always get a bad flu when I'm there...
ReplyDeleteHere in Canada a few years back, they killed 2 million poultry i believe on poultry farms in British Columbia. The government financially compensated the poultry farms and since then there hasn't been an outbreak.
Now my question is, why doesn't the Egyptian government do a similar thing. It will actually cost them less in the long run. Prevent an outbreak like the one that happened in Asia. Prevent poultry farms from throwing sick chickens into the Nile and contaminating the water supply.
Sick people mean more cost to health care and business. Plus, tourism will be affected. Bird flu is very bad press for a nation. Especially a nation that depends on tourist for hard currency.
All of those Euros that flow into Sharm and Hurghada could stop coming if people are afraid of catching bird flu which is a very bad strain of the flu virus.
As you mentioned previously, people will become afraid of people to people transmission. Plus the cost of human lives could be avoided.
Also, isn't there some sort of education program on the tv that could explain the best way to handle chickens until the virus has left Egypt. I'm sure there must be precautions that could be taken.
When SARS hit Toronto, the effect on the economy was devastating for a long time. Jobs were lost, businesses went under and the lives lost were needless because people were not following the Ministry of Health's instructions to stay home if they were infected.
I really hope the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health cooperate and come up with a strategy to try to curtail the spread of the disease.
@N.American , come to Egypt and just bring more clothese with you because the Spring in Egypt is not actually sping
ReplyDeleteit is not that dangerous
Your suggestion is execellent ,the only problem is that Government here does not like to give money at all ,it likes to take only ,they do not want to compensate anyone
There used to be many education programs on TV when the virus first came to Egypt but now they do not show it ,plus people do not trust the government and that's why they have to change the medium they use , of course instead of local channels ,they would go to channels like Dreams , choose Persons like MOna El-Shazely and Mama Karima , Amr Khaled , to send the message where the people really needs it
to tell you the truth I think the government in Egypt will deal with the issue in much serious way this time because they know it evolves it will be the end of them and the regime itself
I remember SARS ,already when the virus came to Egypt it destroyed the poultry industry in the country we changed from exporters to importers, most chicken sellers went out of the business ,it was decastating just like in Toronto but in different way ,those sellers and raisers demanded compensation but the government ignored them
Last time I went to Egypt in 2006it was end of February and I stayed til Mid May...yeah I had a nice boss who let me take time off to settle my father's affairs there...sigh
ReplyDeleteEgyptian weather was gorgeous in Spring Zeinobia...I was wearing a thin, light jacket or no jacket at all. I love Egyptian winter and spring. I have yet to visit in the fall. Come to Canada or Northern USA and see what real winter, fall and spring are like. It's freaking cold this winter and I miss the sun so I'm dreaming of escaping to the Land of the Nile.
You know your suggestion of using Amr Khaled and other Egyptian celebrities is an Excellent one. Maybe those Egyptian authorities that read your blog will read these comments and realize they have merit and would actually work.
Let's hope the government does take it seriously.
@N.american,the Egyptian government does not like reading blogs and consider us as bad opposition yet I can wish they would think for once in their lives outside the box
ReplyDeleteabout the weather well I do not need to go to Canda and the States to know how cold it is now , it is enough to see the news and the Ice storms in my home and feel how much we are blessed in Egypt despite our complains from cold :)