February 14, 2009

Egypt claims to have developed new anti-bird flu vaccine 

A professor from The National Research Centre (NRC) in Egypt announced on Friday (February 13) that vaccine effective against the H5N1 bird flu virus has been developed.

According to state MENA news agency quotes Mohamed Ahmed Ali, professor of virology at the NRC as saying that based on tests, the new vaccine is effective to develop immunity against the deadly virus. Ali said a production line for the new vaccine will be contracted within two weeks.

Egypt is the most affected country by the deadly avian influenza outside Asia. It has reported its H5N1 outbreak in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year. The death toll of the human cases of bird flu in the populous country is 23.

According to statistics of the World Health Organization as of February 5, some 405 people in 15 countries have contracted the virus and 254 of them died of the disease.