Hicham Maged’s blog

Assalam Alikom wa rahmat ALLAH
Peace and Blessings be upon you

Hello Everybody

We all aware now about the Avian influenza (a.k.a. Bird Flu) which began to spread worldwide during the last period. I just want to highlight on the important facts regarding this flu, because Knowledge is Power as you know.

First of all, according to the WHO, scientifically this influenza known is as Influenza A viruses, which have 16 H subtypes + 9 N subtypes. Those viruses mainly affect birds, and rarely animals or humans, that’s why it’s avian or bird flu.

The most contagious strains - which are fatal in birds - are H5 and H7. Such viruses cause birds to stop productivity - i.e. eggs - and then they die quickly. Furthermore, those infected birds usually transfer the virus to other birds via faeces, saliva ..etc. What we are facing today type H5N1, which was discovered for the first time in Hong Kong in the year 1997.

The virus - normally - doesn’t transfer to Human unless a direct contact with infected birds takes place without taking the security procedure. Furthermore, it doesn’t transfer from one person to another, however scientists believe that one day the virus will be developed to do so.

WHO recommends that people - who’ve direct contact to the infected birds - take special procedures to deal with the infected birds. In parallel, for the normal people who’d no direct contact with the infected birds, WHO recommends to use the normal procedure while dealing with meat, which means all meat should be cooked to at least 70o C and eggs should be thoroughly cooked. This will kill the virus if found in the meat or egg, if any.

Egypt and the flu
As of February 17th, 2006, Egypt confirmed to have infections among birds with this flu. It has been confirmed to be positive in 11 governorates until now among birds, however no infections have been confirmed among humans, thank God.

Today - Wednesday - a rumour took place that the Nile was contaminated, however Dr. Mahmoud Abu Zid - the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources - announced that all the analyses for samples of Water taken from the Nile were negative. Therefore this was a Rumour.

Guys, for GOD sake, we must take care of such rumours because this is the best time to have rumours regarding this issue. On the other hand, I’m really worried about the farmers whom depends on selling/buying birds as their main source of income; their simple industry is being threaten now by this virus, as their birds will be executed if they are infected.

New addition
[added om 22-02-2006 @ 2:05 PM]

I forget to complete this part yesterday. I’m also worried about those thousands of infected birds which will be executed, however that’s not compared to my worry about people for sure, I mean those whom had direct contact with the infected birds without taking security procedures.

Anyway, I shall place links below for excellent information regarding this flu. I hope to see my country, and other countries in good state, and hope that we don’t feel panic without particular reason, nor the contrary to ignore the whole issue. Just let us use our minds well to deal with everything.

Finally, after this post, just in case you find yourself crowing, hmm .. I think you’ve a problem [*smile*]

May ALLAH (swt) bless you all, Amen.

By the way
[added on 22-02-2006 @ 6:30 AM]

This update is just for the Arab people as it’s directly related to something in our culture. It’s related to some old popular movie from the Arabic cinema, not to the bird flu itself. Therefore excuse me dear visitors for whom don’t know Arabic or don’t know this movie if they know Arabic.

ela ahmed ibrahim, la tashrab hatha adawa’, you know it Related Links

• Avian influenza @ WHO [the main source]
• Avian influenza @ CDC
• Avian influenza @ BBC
• Avian influenza @ MSN UK
• Avuan influenza @ Wikipedia [EN]
• Avuan influenza @ Wikipedia [AR]
• Avian influenza @ Egypt [official website / ER numbers]

Salam,
Hicham

[image source]

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