CAIRO: The health ministry said on Wednesday that an eight-year-old boy has contracted bird flu after he was exposed to dead fowl, the state-run news agency MENA reported.
The boy, who is in hospital in the province of Alexandria, is the 57th case reported since the first outbreak of the disease in the country in 2006. Twenty-three people have died of bird flu in Egypt.
Most of the victims have been young girls or women, who are generally charged with looking after poultry in the countryside.
Egypt hosted an international conference on bird flu in October where Washington pledged an additional $320 million to the fight against the disease amid fears it may yet escalate into a global pandemic.
The H5N1 strain of the virus that is most dangerous to humans first emerged in Asia in 2003 and has since caused nearly 250 deaths, according to World Health Organization figures.
Scientists fear that a mutation of the bird flu virus resulting in a strain easily transmitted among humans could create a pandemic, potentially affecting up to one-fifth of the world s population. -AFP
