CAIRO: A 33-year-old woman has contracted bird flu, the 64th recorded case since the first outbreak of the disease in Egypt in 2006, the health ministry announced on Wednesday.
The woman from the Kafr El-Sheikh province of northern Egypt is in critical condition and on an artificial respirator, state-run news agency MENA quoted a health ministry official as saying.
She first showed symptoms of the flu more than a week ago after being exposed to dead fowl thought to have been carrying the disease, the official said.
Egypt has seen an increase in bird flu cases over the past month. The World Health Organization (WHO) called last month for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children.
Twenty-three people have died of bird flu in Egypt. Most of the victims have been young girls or women, who are generally in charge of looking after poultry in rural areas.
Egypt hosted an international conference on bird flu in October, when 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 WHO 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
