Egyptian woman dies of bird flu
A 25-year Egyptian woman has died of bird flu after apparently contracting the disease from poultry, the Health Ministry said today.
Fatima Fathi Mohammed was the second fatality and the third case of the lethal virus announced by Egypt in less than a week.
Ms Mohammed, a resident of the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, was admitted to hospital on Friday suffering from high fever and breathing difficulties, Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahamn Shahin said.
She later tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, he said in a statement.
“She was in contact with fowl suspected of having the virus,” he said.
Ms Mohammed died today, bringing to 17 the number of Egyptians to have succumbed to the fatal strain since it first appeared in the country last year.
On Wednesday, Ola Youness Mohammed, from the town of Beni Soweif, some 200km (130 miles) south of Cairo, died of bird flu.
On Friday, the World Health Organisation said two women in Egypt have tested positive for a lethal strain of bird flu.
The UN health agency said a 50-year-old woman was admitted to hospital with the H5N1 strain of the disease on December 24 and is in a critical condition.
A 22-year-old female chicken seller infected with the same strain was taken to hospital on December 26 and is recovering in intensive care, it said.
The cases, which were reported by Egypt’s Ministry of Health, bring the total number of H5N1 infections in the country to 41, including the 17 fatalities.
Most of the deaths have been among women or girls whose families raise poultry in backyards and who had daily contact with chickens or turkeys.
Egypt is one of the countries most affected by the H5N1 strain outside Asia, where the bird flu outbreak began.
The country lies on a main route for migratory birds, which are believed to have brought the disease.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has hit 45 countries and killed nearly 200 people worldwide since 2003.
It has resulted in the culling of millions of birds.
The virus has infected more than 340 people and killed at least 212 since 2003, mostly in Asia.
