الفهرس 
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Abstract
Avian flu is viral infection of domestic poultry that has the ability of infecting human being that are in direct contact with infected birds or in contact with an environment where the virus is present. Furthermore, it has been clearly identified as one of the main global threats to poultry business that result from the current mature globalization of business activities and international trade together with global terrorism.
Since the reemergence of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) among poultry in December 2003, the disease has spread from Southeast Asia and has now affected 60 countries in Asia, Europe, the Near East, and Africa. The persistence, spread, and gradual evolution of this virus between 2003 until now have raised concerns about its potential to cause a catastrophic influenza pandemic among humans. Now, transmission of the virus is primarily bird-to-bird with limited to bird-to-human transmission, but future mutations could generate a virus able to spread efficiently from person to person. A human influenza pandemic could result in the loss of millions of lives worldwide and have a major effect on the global economy, including travel, trade, tourism, consumption, and investment.
During the period from 2003 till the 6th of May 2010, the cumulative number of confirmed human cases of avian influenza A, which were reported to WHO, was 498 cases an/.;ld the number of death among these cases were 294 deaths.
On the 17th of February 2006, highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) was first reported in the poultry population in Egypt . Since that time, the infection had affected at least 21 governorates forcing over 1.5 million individuals to lose their source of livelihood. Overall, 370 backyard poultry flocks, 850 farms, and four zoos have been affected, and more than 36 million birds (mainly chickens) have died or have been culled in Egypt at an enormous cost to the country. Currently, the virus is endemic in the Egyptian poultry population.
These numbers of infected cases make Egypt the worst affected country after Indonesia and Vietnam and the worst affected country in the Eastern Mediterranean region. In Egypt, 4.5to 7 million families (out of 78 million populations) raise poultry in their backyards and are at great risk to avian influenza. All of the people who died had kept poultry in backyards farms and only few of the infected people worked in commercial farms.
Nurses play an important role at many different levels, especially with regard to the contact tracing; prompt diagnosis of the disease and the supporting of patients and their families during treatment. Avian influenza control is a joint effort involving local authorities, medical and para-medical health care workers and community groups.