Egyptian woman 'died of bird flu'

Initial tests have shown that a woman who died this week had bird flu, making her probably the first human death from the disease in Egypt, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation said today.

A US Navy lab in Cairo found that the woman, who died on Friday, had the H5N1 virus, but further tests will be conducted by the WHO to give final confirmation, Who spokesman Hassan el-Bushra said.

A number of people who came in contact with the woman are also being tested, said el-Bushra, who is the Who regional adviser for emerging diseases. He would not say how many people were being tested or whether they had shown any symptoms of bird flu.

Egypt’s health minister, Hatem El-Gabali, said earlier that the woman – from Qalyoubiya governorate, an area north of Cairo – was raising poultry at her home and some of her birds also died, according to the official news agency, MENA.

Police identified the woman as Amal Mohammed Ismail, 35, saying she was admitted to hospital in the governorate’s capital Qalyoub, about two weeks ago, and was subsequently transferred to the Cairo Fevers’ Hospital where she died Friday.

Ismail’s home has been sealed off by security, police said.