Three in Egypt family test postive for bird flu-WHO

CAIRO, Dec 24 (Reuters) Three members of the same family in Egypt have tested positive for H5N1 bird flu, a World Health Organisation official said today.

The WHO earlier said a brother, 26, and sister, 15, had the virus and then said a third relative, a woman aged 30, had contracted it.

All three are from the same extended family of 33 living in a single house in a village near the town of Zifta in Gharbiya province, about 80 km north of Cairo, Hassan el-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance at the WHO, said.

Bushra said the family raised ducks, and the brother and sister had slaughtered the flock after a number of ducks had become sick and died.

The three have been moved to a hospital in Cairo and have been treated with the drug Tamiflu, with the rest of the family being kept under close medical surveillance, Bushra said.

The new infections bring the total number of human cases in Egypt to 18, of whom seven have died since the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry in February.

The initial bird flu outbreak caused panic in Egypt, where poultry is a major source of protein, and poor families frequently breed chicken and ducks domestically in cities and rural areas to supplement their diet and income.

The Egyptian cabinet announced in November that the country's poultry production had recovered to almost the same level as before the deadly virus hit in February.

An official with the Food and Agriculture Organisation had said in October that the onset of cooler weather could cause a flare-up of cases in poultry.

REUTERS PDM PM1504