Initial tests at a US Navy lab show that a 35-year-old woman who died this week in Egypt had bird flu, officials said. If the results are confirmed, she would be the country's first known human death from the disease.
The Cairo lab found that the woman, who died on Friday, had the H5N1 strain, lab spokesman Andrew Stegall said on Saturday. The WHO will conduct further tests in an effort to confirm the findings, said Hassan el-Bushra, WHO's regional adviser for emerging diseases.
Egypt's health minister, Hatem El-Gabali, said earlier that the woman -- from the area of Qalyoubiya, north of Cairo -- was raising poultry at her home and some of her birds also died, according to the official news agency MENA.
Police identified the woman as Amal Mohammed Ismail and said she was hospitalized in the regional capital, Qalyoub, about two weeks ago. She subsequently was transferred to the Cairo Fevers' Hospital, where she died.
Official confirmation of Egypt's first cases of H5N1 in poultry last month sparked a slaughter at poultry farms across the country. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged Egyptians to halt the practice of raising birds at their homes.
Meanwhile Israeli veterinary officials yesterday proceeded with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands turkeys and chickens as new tests came close to confirming Israel's first outbreak of bird flu.
Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Dafna Varisca said ``it's very close to 100 percent'' sure that the virus has spread to Israel.
The Cabinet devoted its weekly meeting yesterday to the outbreak, while veterinary officials dressed in protective suits continued the systematic slaughter of poultry in four farming communities suspected of being hit by the virus.
At yesterday's Cabinet meeting, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to form a task force within days to handle compensating farmers for their losses. Damage is expected to run into millions of dollars.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number