CAIRO: Two Egyptian children were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday. Ibrahim Mahmoud Helmy, a four-year-old boy from Qena city and Mahmoud Mohamed Shalaby, a seven-year-old boy from Sohag, both in Upper Egypt were reported to have caught the virus. Helmy, according to the Ministry of health, was admitted to Nagaa Hamady hospital on Thursday March 29, suffering from fever and was immediately given the antiviral Tamiflu drug and transmitted to Manshiet El Bakry hospital in Cairo. Shalaby was admitted to a hospital in Sohag on the same day as Helmy, also suffering from fever, and was later transferred to the Cairo hospital in Cairo and treated with Tamiflu. The third case, not reported by the ministry, was of a four-year-old girl who was admitted to hospital on Friday March 30, according to the State News Agency Mena. The three new cases brought the number of human cases in Egypt to 32, said Mena. The Ministry of Health's official press release, however, stated that the total number of cases was 31. According to Reuters, Egypt has the highest number of confirmed cases of bird flu in humans outside Asia. Thirteen Egyptians have died from bird flu since it first hit the country a year ago. Most infected patients were reported to have had contact with sick or dead birds, mainly in northern Egypt. On Tuesday March 27, two children tested positive for bird flu but their condition was stable, Hassan Al-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable disease surveillance for World Health Organization, told Reuters. Health experts fear the H5N1 virus could change into another form that transmits easily from human to human, initiating a deadly disease that could kill millions. Additional reporting by Reuters
