The Egyptian government's uniquely incompetent handling of the worldwide swine flu outbreak last year is discussed by al-Masry al-Youm in the light of analysis by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The paper quotes a former preventive medicine advisor for the health ministry as saying: "Egypt might have been the only country in the world that took an irrational approach towards the pandemic."

Following the discovery of the H1N1 virus in Egypt, the cabinet ordered all pigs in the country (about 350 in total) to be slaughtered, even though it was known that pigs did not spread the virus. The paper continues:

The OCHA report says schools were the most affected, and the zibaleen (garbage collectors) the biggest losers, as a result of the government’s strategy. It describes intermittent closures of schools and the downsizing of class attendance by 50 percent, with some students attending school only three times a week.

Nadia Youssef, an educational expert at Cairo University, believes the state of confusion that accompanied the flu breakout severely damaged the whole educational process. Youssef said the problem was due to the fact that the virus manifested itself within the early months of the school year, leading to the closure of some schools and the cancellation of some parts of the syllabus ...

The analysis also notes that the Egyptian government spent LE30 million (US$5.4 million) in return for 1.9 million doses of vaccines, after it failed to secure the five million it was supposed to provide. The government also failed in its plan to vaccinate school students, as many parents refused to send their children to school on learning that the anti-flu vaccine causes deformations.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 28 July 2010.