WHO confirms Egyptian girl dies of bird flu

CAIRO, Feb 5 (Reuters) An Egyptian girl has died of bird flu south of Cairo, bringing the number of confirmed deaths from the disease in Egypt to 12, a World Health Organisation official said today.

Hassan el-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance for the World Health Organisation, said the girl was believed to have been infected after coming into contact with sick and dead birds.

Egypt's state news agency MENA identified the girl as 17-year-old Nouri Nadi of Fayyoum province. Bushra said she had started showing symptoms of the illness in late January, but initial tests had indicated she had seasonal flu. Later tests were positive for the H5N1 virus.

Neither Bushra nor MENA said when the girl died, but both indicated the death was recent.

The new case brings to 20 the number of people known to have been infected with bird flu in Egypt, which has the largest known cluster of human bird flu cases outside Asia. Twelve people have died and eight others have recovered since the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry a year ago.

Most people infected in Egypt had been in contact with poultry kept at home. The outbreak initially caused panic across the country and did extensive damage to the poultry industry.

But the Egyptian government said last month that poultry production had recovered to 1.8 million birds a day, just short of the two million level produced before the outbreak.

Reuters SRS VP0250