Children often contract the bird flu virus in poorer areas

Confirmation from the Health Ministry in Egypt has come through regarding the death of an Egyptian boy from the bird flu virus. A Health Ministry spokesman explained that the two year old boy lived in the northern Egyptian province of Beheira about 80 miles north of Cairo.

Egypt has been hit by the bird flu virus many times and this case brings the number of human infections in the country to 61 and the number of deaths up to 23.  Despite being admitted to hospital two days before dying and being given the best possible treatments the boy succumbed to the deadly high fever and respiratory problems that the virus brings on.

Most of the cases of the bird flu virus in humans have occurred inside Asia and therefore for European people the problem seems far away and distant however when cases are reported in Egypt health authorities in Europe start to take notice. There have been no human cases of the bird flu inside Europe yet.

Children often contract the bird flu virus in poor areas because they play with animals on farms. Because they have close respiratory contact with the animals due to their small size they contract the disease more easily than adults. In remote countryside areas in poor countries it is often too late by the time the virus is diagnosed for the children to be treated with bird flu medications such as Tamiflu.

The World Health Organisation which monitors all outbreaks of the bird flu virus report that over 400 individuals in fifteen different countries have been infected by the bird flu virus and that over 250 of them have died from it. The World Health Organisation has issued guidelines to all countries that they should have enough of the Tamiflu drug for 25 percent of their population to be treated just in case a bird flu pandemic breaks out which is easily transmittable between humans.