E-Paper
Egypt confirms four human cases of bird flu
The results of medical tests carried out by the health ministry are still to be reviewed by a British laboratory.
Egypt said on Tuesday that four people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, including one who has already died, and that three more are suspected of being infected.
However, the results of medical tests carried out by the health ministry are still to be reviewed by a British laboratory.
The latest case was contracted by Mohammed Mahmud Abdul Ghani Ghabash, 17, a student from the province of Gharbiyah, north of Cairo, he was hospitalised on Sunday, Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali said.
Ghabash worked on his father's poultry farm, where 3,000 birds died of flu over the weekend.
Previously, Fatima Mohammed Yussef, 30, from Qaliubiya, north of Cairo, was hospitalised in the capital after showing initial bird flu symptoms.
She had continued to work in her chicken coop and kill fowl two weeks ago despite a ban since the H5N1 virus was detected in Egypt in mid-February.
An infected man has also been hospitalised after spending time with infected poultry but medics said Sunday he was recovering.
The only fatal victim so far has been Amal Mohammed Ismail, from Nawa village also in Qaliubiya province, who kept a domestic bid farm despite a ban on the practice since the arrival of bird flu.
She died of a fever in hospital Saturday nearly two weeks after she was admitted with flu-like symptoms.
