Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqi was absolutely correct when he reacted to rumours spread on Tuesday that the Nile Water was contaminated with the bird flu virus by saying that rumours were much more dangerous than the bird flu disease itself.

A state of panic spread throughout Egypt following rumours that large quantities of bird flu-infected poultry have been dumped into the Nile water.

In spite of statements by the ministers of health, irrigation,
agriculture, environment and information that tap water was safe to drink and that the bird flu virus can only pass to humans who have direct contact with infected birds, ill-intended short messages (SMS), dispatched by unknown sources, continued to reach people on their cell phones.

The question is: Who has benefited from floating such rumours? Does he really care about the people's health? If one considers the fact the price of a carton of bottled mineral water rose that that day in some parts of the country of LE 16 to LE 30 it would be easy to point fingers of accusations at the prime beneficiary from such rumours.

Bird flu has been expected in Egypt for quite some time as infected migratory birds carried the virus to various parts of the world leading to destruction of millions of infected birds.

On October 15, President Hosni Mubarak presided over a ministerial meeting that reviewed a national plan to confront emergencies including the bird flu disease.

With the virus approaching the Middle East and following the spotting of several cases in the Palestinian territories and Iraq, the state of alert was heightened and tougher precautionary measures were imposed on border areas where migratory birds cross into the country.

Soon after spotting bird flu cases in some governorates, the Ministry of Health was quick in announcing the results of lab tests through various media channels on February 17th.

The Middle East News Agency (MENA) carried the story as breaking news through its newly introduced SMS service transmitted in Arabic, English and French to subscribers on their cell phones.

President Mubarak has been closely watching the developments of the situation and is directing the authorities concerned to take all possible measures to protect the citizens.

Abdallah Hassan
MENA
Saturday, February 25, 2006