6th person dies of bird flu in Egypt

6th person dies of bird flu in Egypt

A sixth person has died of bird flu in Egypt, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Zeinab Mohammed, 75, died on Thursday morning, six days after she was admitted to a hospital in the southern province of Minya, ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Shaheen told the Associated Press.

As with Egypt's previous five fatalities, Zeinab was female. In Egyptian households, women and young girls tend to look after chickens and turkeys kept in the backyard, making them more vulnerable to avian flu.

"She contracted the H5N1 virus after coming in contact with sick chickens that she was raising in her house," Shaheen said.

Last month, the authorities said that 13 people, including two sisters, had been diagnosed with the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus since early March, reports the AP.

I.L.