CAIRO: An Egyptian toddler has caught the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the Egyptian health ministry said on Wednesday, bringing to 50 the number of people infected by the virus.
Mahmoud Ramadan, two, from a village in the Nile Delta s Sharqiya region, was taken to hospital on Monday with high fever and breathing difficulties, the ministry said according to the official MENA news agency.His condition is described as stable.
A total of 22 people have died from avian flu in Egypt since 2006.In January, four people died of the disease in just one week after safety precautions were relaxed in the belief that the virus had disappeared when no case had been reported for six months.
Egypt s location on major bird migration routes and the widespread practice of keeping domestic fowl near living quarters have led to it being the hardest-hit country outside Asia.
Women and children have borne the brunt of the virus because of their role in caring for domestic fowl.
The World Health Organization said earlier this year that most countries had improved their defenses against bird flu, but the situation remained critical in Egypt and Indonesia where the risk of the H5N1 virus mutating into a major human threat remains high. -AFP
