The ministry of health today has just announced the first two H1N1 infection cases in schools in Egypt , yes in school and we have started this week only !!
The first case is 15 years old girl studying at Rajac American School “Private A Class School” in Cairo and the second case is 11 year old girl studying at Naga’a Halal school “Public school” in Sohag, yes Sohag in Upper Egypt. Both girls are currently in hospitals in their governorates and both of them are fine. It is ironic because without knowing both girls personally it seems that H1N1 did not differentiate between a Rajac student and a Sohag student .“My cousin was graduated from Rajac “.
The classes of both girls will be closed for two weeks.
I do not recall that the ministry of health has announced cases from Upper Egypt before other than foreigners in Hurghada. I bet next week many families will home school their children.
Of course the latest infection record has reached to 1005 with our two young ladies whom I pray to God to survive this virus. Last Eid I had a terrible seasonal flu where we feared that it would be H1N1 and I would spend the Eid in the fever hospital , I swear my mom was going to prepare my bag if my temperature did go down in 24 hours , I did not have the symptoms but the fever was terrifying though , it was a terrible experience.
By the way there is on going debate about a H1N1 vaccine produced by Baxter with tons of emails and posts in Arabic forums warning from its danger , according to my humble knowledge the vaccines which the ministry of health is going to import are either produced by Novartis or Glaxco smith Kline , I do not remember which one but it was a blow against Roche of Tamiflu. Not to mention I read that the army is going to produce our local vaccine , I do not know if it is true or not , but it is good move. Back to Baxter , the emails and posts caused a frenzy and fear especially it is speaking about a sinister conspiracy. Michael Crichton of Arabia aka Dr. Ahmed Khalid Tawfik has tackled this subject today in his column in Al Dostor and I totally agree with him.
The same debate has been going on here in the U.K. and it the U.S. Most of the articles were focusing on the safety of the vaccines with a substance added to make it possible to produce more of it and to make the doze strong enough. Most of the comments were saying they wont take a vaccine.
ReplyDeleteIm not a doctor but I fail to see how a vaccine will work with flu we all know how the potential of flu mutating is and there are even some who said that vaccines might ease that mutation which will be a disaster for all
@anonymous , the debate here is not about the safety of vaccines more about the safety of that particular vaccine produced by that particular company "conspiracy theory" and this could be an industrial war between companies.
ReplyDeleteStill as you said I find it strange how the vaccine will work if it is mutating