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H5N1 flu virus claims second victim in Egypt
A 19-year-old woman was the second to die in Egypt from the influenza this year
An Egyptian woman has died after coming into contact with birds infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
The 19-year-old woman was receiving treatment in a hospital in the region of Assiut in the south of the country when she died yesterday.
It was the second death in Egypt this year out of a total of seven confirmed cases, said Egyptian health officials and comes after several cases of birds infected with different types of the virus were discovered in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
There have been 667 cases of H5N1 worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
H5N1 was first seen in a human patient in Hong Kong in 1993 but has since spread worldwide.
It has a death rate of about 60% in humans.
