Sunday, January 25, 2009

Egypt says girl contracts bird flu

25 Jan 2009 20:47:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
CAIRO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A two-year-old Egyptian girl has been infected with the bird flu virus, becoming the country's 53rd case of bird flu in humans, state news agency MENA said on Sunday.MENA cited a health ministry spokesman as saying the girl, Sherouk Mohammad Said of Menoufia province, contracted the virus through exposure to household poultry, some of which died of the disease. The spokesman said Said began suffering flu-like symptoms on Friday and was hospitalised the same day. She has been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu and is in a stable condition, according to MENA. Of the 53 human cases in Egypt over almost three years, 23 have died, but the number of cases seems to be diminishing. Said was Egypt's third human case of the disease this winter season. Since the first case in 2003 there have been 252 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain of bird flu and at least 399 confirmed cases of infection. Egypt has had more cases than any country outside Asia. (Reporting by Aziz El-Kaissouni; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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