Cairo: An Egyptian health ministry official has announced the death of a 30-year-old woman of bird flu, raising the country's deaths to 22.

The official said the woman contracted the H5N1 virus from domestic fowl. She was identified as Walaa Ahmad Abdel-Jalil from the Matariya district in the northern Nile Delta region.

She was hospitalised yesterday with high fever and breathing difficulties and treated with Tamiflu, a drug commonly used for the disease, but died despite treatment.

The health official was not identified by name, but his statement was carried today by the state MENA news agency.

This is Egypt's 49th case of bird flu in humans since March 2006 when the disease broke out.

Egypt has the highest number of cases in humans after Indonesia and Vietnam.

Source : PTI