The health ministry said that virology tests from samples of an infected person taken last month were positive for the virulent strain of the flu virus, which had also affected three domestic fowl.

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Tests were positive
"Tests from a person suffering from flu-like symptoms on April 27 were positive for the disease," the ministry said in a statement read on state radio. "Three domestic hens were also affected by the virus."

The ministry said the tests were carried out with the collaboration of the World Health Organization (WHO) at a laboratory in Cairo but did not give the condition or identity of the infected person.

But it said that the person had been in direct contact with infected fowl and called on the population to avoid proximity to live birds and report suspicious deaths of fowl.

The ministry added that the government was taking "all necessary precautions" to keep the virus from spreading, would step up its monitoring of humans and poultry and ensure the provision of drugs to treat it.

2nd African country
Djibouti is the first country in east Africa to report the appearance of the H5N1 virus in either birds or humans and the second in Africa to report a human case after Egypt.

It is the eighth African country to find the strain in birds after Nigeria, Egypt, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Sudan.

The H5N1 virus has struck poultry flocks in dozens of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa and claimed more than 100 human lives, but in Africa only Egypt so far has seen human fatalities with five deaths reported.

Health authorities had long warned that east Africa was at particular risk for the spread of the virus because it hosts large numbers of migratory birds thought to be carriers.

But suspected outbreaks reported after mass bird deaths in countries such as Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya have all proved negative to date.

Epidemiologists say the H5N1 viral strain, which can kill humans, requires very close contact to jump the species barrier.

Tens of millions of infected birds have passed the virus on to a total of 206 people in two and a half years.

Of these known cases, confirmed by the WHO, more than half have died.

Global pandemic feared
Health officials fear a global pandemic of the disease with millions of deaths if it mutates into a strain easily transmitted between humans.

They have also warned that many nations in Africa, the world's poorest continent, are highly vulnerable to the spread of bird flu due to the close proximity between people and animals. – (Sapa-AFP)

Visit our Flu Centre for more information.

May 2006
 

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