In the light of what was announced about the issue of the Bird flu in some regions in Egypt on Friday 17 February 2006, the National Emergency Committee on Bird Flu held an urgent meeting on 18 February 2006. The Committee affirmed that there have been no human cases of the disease in Egypt and that the Government is coordinating closely with its international partners to trace the disease and providing the citizens with all the facts to avoid misleading information, in addition to taking all the necessary measures to restrain the disease among birds and reducing the chances of its spread among humans. The Committee clearly stated that the disease was discovered in its early stages and this is due to the ultimate government transparency in dealing with the crisis and thanks to the awareness of the citizens who reported the cases of dead birds. The enclosed statement includes the main points discussed at the meeting, and the decisions taken in this regard.  The Press Statement issued by the National Emergency Committee on Bird flu on 18 February 2006 The High National Committee to combat bird flu met on Saturday 18 February 2006 under the chairmanship of Health Minister together with Agriculture Minister, the governors of Giza and Qaliobya and representatives of the ministries of Defence, Interior, Environment, Information, and Cairo Governorate. Also representatives of the World Health Organization, and Food and Agriculture Organization participated in the meeting. to discuss the developments of the crisis since the discovery of six bird infections. The Health Minister reviewed the situation as follows: 1.    There have been no human cases of the disease until now, and stressed on the fact that there is still no evidence that the disease can be transmitted among humans, 2.    All the test results which were carried out on those who were in close contact with birds and confirmed to be infected with the virus were negative until now. Adding that all reports are taken seriously into consideration, and examinations will be carried out regularly. 3.    The competent authorities received a lot of reports concerning the infected birds and cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in Qena, Dakahlya, Giza, Qaliobya, and Beni Sweif governorates. Moreover, all the cases were carefully dealt with as the infected birds were quarantined and slaughtered. The results revealed one positive case discovered in one of the farms in Qaliobya Governorate resulting in slaughtering all the birds and the investigation is still pending to reveal the circumstances surrounding this case. 4.    The Committee is watching closely and pursuing the pandemic in cooperation with international partners through adopting an early alert system to capture the first signs of the disease and prevent the spread of infection. 4- The Committee stated that poultry breeders have a pivotal role to play in protecting citizens’ health by reporting any infection or death cases, and undertaking the necessary measures of quarantine, safe disposal of infected birds, and sterilizing the locations of infection and the surrounding areas in cooperation with the governmental teams for combating the disease. 5- The Committee calls on citizens not to dispose dead or infected birds in roads and placing them in plastic bags instead after taking all the pre-emptive measures in dealing with the birds, through wearing gloves or plastic bags during packaging the bird carcasses after being immersed in diluted chlorine (1liter of chlorine to 4liters of water) in order to be handed to the specialized vehicles. 6- In view of the importance of avoiding the spread of the disease among birds, and guaranteeing not to be transferred to humans, the Committee issued the following directives: ·        15 days ban on transferring live birds among governorates without a certificate issued by the Technical Committee, the ban period could be renewed by the Higher National Committee if needed. 1 day old chicks, frozen birds and eggs are exempted of the ban.  ·        Birds’ wastes, and feathers are subject to transfer ban. ·        15 days ban on slaughtering poultry outside the authorized slaughterhouses, the ban period could be renewed by the Higher National Committee if needed. ·        Ban selling live birds in public markets. ·        Removing all nests and unauthorized pens.