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Egypt's 27th bird flu death, a 4-yr-old girl

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-19 21:38

CAIRO -- Egypt's official news agency says a 4-year-old girl has died of bird flu, making her the country's 27th death from the virus since 2006.

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The Ministry of Health announced that Nada Reda from the Daqahliya province was admitted to a hospital on May 9 with flu-like symptoms and died Monday.

The vast majority of people who have succumbed to the H5N1 virus in Egypt are women and children, tasked with caring for domestic poultry.

Egypt is the country worst hit by bird flu outside Asia and the disease has persisted despite efforts to educate the people and control the poultry population.

The government, meanwhile, has ordered the slaughtering of all the country's pigs out of fear of A(H1N1) flu, formerly known as the swine flu, even thought there are no cases in the country.