In a dark and muddy alley in the Nile delta town of Damietta, where Egypt's latest fatal bird flu victim Hanem Atwa Ibrahim lived, inhabitants fear the authorities more than the virus.
"It was the will of God that she died. The chickens had nothing to do with it," says Husseini Ahmed Amine, 54, a furniture maker who employs a son of the dead woman, who was aged 50.
Most of the inhabitants of the Ezbet el-Lahm district pay scant attention to the government's campaign against the H5N1 virus which, after a summer respite, killed four people, all women, in the space of a week over New Year.
Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali warned in December against "slackness in the preventive measures taken to fight bird flu especially as winter approaches."
But here, as elsewhere in the country, distrust of the government is widespread.
A national campaign to slaughter possibly infected birds is more often than not seen as just another threat from authorities in which people have no faith.
Ibrahim's death was the 19th fatality in Egypt where there have been a total of 43 cases of bird flu in humans since the disease was first recorded here in February 2006. Women and children have borne the brunt of the virus because of their role in taking care of domestic fowl.
"Listen to me: All these chickens, they don't kill them, they sell them off or eat them," says Hanane Essayyed Farhat, 42, a mother of four selling her poultry near the latest victim's home.
"The state and businessmen profit from bird flu. It's all just about trying to get people to buy frozen chickens. That way they'll make money off our back," she said.
The authorities recommend eating factory farmed chicken whose origins can be traced. Almost two years since H5N1 appeared in Egypt, the north African country has become one of the most affected countries in the world.
But despite a government ban on raising poultry on rooftops -- an age-old tradition in Egypt -- chickens, ducks and geese continue to squawk and quack from cages on most of this district's rooftops, alongside pigeon coops.
According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, Egypt and Indonesia are the countries most likely to see the virus mutate into a form that is contagious among humans, because of people's close contact with poultry.
It is a challenge to get people to stop raising and eating poultry in a country where meat is a luxury for most, and birds can be fed cheaply on leftovers.
"I don't believe in bird flu. We look after our poultry, nothing can happen to them," Amine says. "What's more their factory chicken has no taste, you can't even tell it's chicken."
Many of those infected are fearful of revealing their symptoms as they would lose a source of revenue and they fear the anger of their neighbors who may have their flocks slaughtered.
As a result, many sufferers are often hospitalized too late for the medical treatment to work.
Abdessalam Essayyed, 46, is one of Ezbet el-Lahm's few inhabitants to be fearful after his neighbor died.
"I immediately killed our ducks and chickens," he says, pointing to dried blood on the concrete floor in front of his poultry's small cage.
The Health Ministry recently called for heightened vigilance saying that preventative measures were not being implemented.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health, the H5N1 avian flu virus can be eradicated if it is dealt with effectively in Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS