CAIRO: A 25-year-old woman from Cairo has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the 25th reported death from the disease since it broke out in the country in 2006, according to the Ministry of Health. It is the second death in Egypt from bird flu this year. The woman died from respiratory failure caused by the disease, which she is believed to have contracted from close contact with infected poultry health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin said. Shahin said Hadiya Salah Ragab was admitted to the hospital earlier this month with symptoms of the deadly H5N1 virus. The woman, a resident of the poor Al-Marg neighborhood, was treated with the drug Tamiflu but remained in critical condition until she died Wednesday. Shahine says Ragab contracted the virus by handling dead domestic poultry. Her death came a day after a six-year-old boy from a different Cairo neighborhood died from the virus. Most of the victims in Egypt have been young girls or women, who are generally in charge of looking after poultry in rural areas. The World Health Organization called last month for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children. The organization estimates that the H5N1 strain of the virus has killed around 250 people since 2003, mainly in Southeast Asia. -Agencies
