CAIRO: A teenage girl from Cairo died of bird flu, the health ministry announced on Wednesday, bringing to 14 the number of Egyptians who have succumbed to the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Marina Kamil Mikhail, a 15-year-old girl from the capital s Shubra district, died in hospital on Tuesday, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen told AFP. She developed symptoms on March 30 and was admitted to hospital in Cairo on April 5 where she was treated with the Tamiflu drug. Several Egyptians, mainly children, had been infected with the deadly bird flu virus in recent weeks across the country, but the girl was the first not to survive an infection since February. The case was also the first of 34 infections reported in humans since March 2006 to be detected in the capital. Egypt s position on major bird migration routes and the widespread practice of keeping domestic fowl close to living quarters had meant rural regions north and south of the capital were the hardest-hit. Women and children have borne the brunt of the virus due to their role in taking care of domestic fowl.
The government says it is conducting a vigorous campaign to combat the spread of the virus through vaccinations and raising awareness, but cases continue to appear. With 14 deaths, Egypt is the world s most affected country after Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and China. It is also the world s hardest-hit non-Asian country and more cases of avian influenza were detected in humans there in 2007 than in any other country. Sixteen cases of the highly pathogenic virus were reported in Egypt since the start of the year, including five in the first 10 days of April alone. The World Health Organization says the H5N1 strain has infected almost 300 people and killed about 170 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia, since 2003.
