An outbreak of bird flu in Russia has been contained, Russian authorities said, while Egypt continues to battle the largest epidemic of the virus outside of Asia.
Russian officials said on Monday that the outbreak, caused by the Asian strain of the H5N1 virus, was under control, as thousands of people were monitored for signs of the illness.
"Medical monitoring is under way for 5,453 residents in the relevant areas, including 20 citizens who were in direct contact with the infected birds," Gennady Onishchenko, an epidemiologist, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
He said: "Illnesses or people suspected to be ill have not been found."
The cases were reported on two private farms within 50km of Moscow, Russia's capital.
This is the second bird flu outbreak to be recorded in Russia after the virus was previously found in poultry plants in Russia's Krasnodar region in 2005.
The outbreak was confirmed as the Asian form of the H5N1 virus by officials on Saturday, considered deadly because it caused the first known human fatality in Hong Kong in 1997 and reappeared in China in 2003.
Epidemic
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Keeping birds at home is considered an Egyptian
tradition in both urban and rural areas |
In Egypt, five-year old Mohamed Ahmed Soliman is the youngest sufferer and the 22nd person in the country to contract the virus.
He contracted the virus at home where his family keeps chickens, ducks and geese. But doctors say so far he's responding well to treatment.
Yossri Ragab, a doctor at Mansheyat Al-Bakry Hospital in Cairo, told Al Jazeera: "In severe cases like his, we use lots of antibiotics to prevent any minor microbic infections in the chest. He's better now."
The Egyptian government ensures farmers vaccinate their birds when they are one day old but the virus has still claimed 13 lives since the first cases were reported in Egypt in late 2004.
Most of those who have died kept birds at home, considered an Egyptian tradition in both urban and rural areas.
The practice has been banned by the government but the restriction is largely ignored by the public.
Amr El-Kahky, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Egypt, said: "It will take more than talk and awareness campaigns to convince people to get rid of the birds they keep. For many Egyptians living in poverty the birds are their only source of food and at the same time their greatest threat."
The H5N1 virus has caused 270 reported human infections worldwide since 2003 and as of last month had killed 164.