A ten year old Egyptian girl, from a southern part of Egypt, contracted the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus and died on saturday.
15 confirmed deaths from the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu virus have been reported in Egypt
The little girl was 10-years-old and hailed from a town in the southern part of the country. She is the country’s 15th fatality due to the virus that first hit Egypt in 2006.
The girl was admitted to a hospital after developing flu-like symptoms, and died after testing positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. It is believed that the little girl had come into contact with infected poultry and this may be how she contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus.
Egypt first reported the H5N1 strain of bird flu in deceased poultry in February of last year and the first human case the following month.
Since 2004, some 270 humans have been infected with bird flu in 10 countries, with about 167 fatalities, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization. With the flu spreading around the world, the virus has turned up in birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. So far, bird flu has mostly been passed from birds either to other birds or, in isolated cases, to humans.