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Avian Influenza around the world to worry about
Campinas, December 8, 2010 - Absent from the news for almost two years - first, because the number of cases fell dramatically, and second, because H1N1 has become a "big shot" - Avian Influenza H5N1 returns to be a global concern. One concern that increases with the approach of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
In recent days, at least four Asian countries have reported instances: Japan, Nepal, Vietnam (where, apparently, any cases of H5N1 are still commonplace), and most recently, Azerbaijan - which means that the virus is already on the border of victims Asia with Europe.
In Vietnam, notification sent yesterday (7) to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported the detection of three outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry for subsistence. The incidence in Azerbaijan involves commercial poultry. The episode has not yet been reported to the OIE, but - according to local press - the country's health authorities have confirmed that this is the case of H5 - supposedly from H5N1.
Further compounding the picture - which, in the reported cases, involving only birds - the Ministry of Health in Egypt has announced the death of a woman of 30 years, residing north of Cairo, H5N1 infection. This is the 10th fatal human case in the country only in 2010 and the 37th since 2006.
These figures make Egypt the third country most affected by human cases of the fatal disease, behind Indonesia (141 deaths since 2005) and Vietnam (59 fatalities since 2003).
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