Tests show Egyptian woman who died had bird flu

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Initial tests have shown that a woman who died this week had bird flu, making her likely the first human death from the disease in Egypt, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said Saturday. 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 told The Associated Press. 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.