Egyptian health official denies new bird flu case

CAIRO, Feb 27 (Reuters) An Egyptian Health Ministry official denied a report by the state news agency that a woman from the Nile Delta had tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus.

''It's not true,'' said Amr Qandil, director of communicable diseases at the ministry. ''I do not know where they got this information.'' State news agency MENA yesterday reported that a 31-year-old housewife from the Nile Delta province of Beheira, Samia Mansour Hashem, had tested positive for the bird flu virus. It said that the woman raised chickens in her home.

She had been taken to hospital in the town of Damanhour but was transferred to Alexandria Fever Hospital when her condition deteriorated, MENA said. Veterinary workers had also been sent to her home to test birds there, the agency said.

World Health Organisation officials, who normally confirm human bird flu cases, were not immediately available for comment, nor were doctors at the Alexandria Fever Hospital.

Egypt has the highest number of human bird flu cases outside of Asia. Some 22 people have been confirmed to have tested positive for the disease, and 13 have died.

Most people infected in Egypt had been in contact with live birds kept at home. Bird flu initially caused panic across the country and did extensive damage to the poultry industry, although the sector has largely recovered.

World Health Organisation officials have said a delay in reporting symptoms in Egypt, where many people keep poultry at home, made the virus harder to fight.

REUTERS SBA RN0503