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21:21 GMT
CAIRO, Feb 4 (KUNA) -- Health authorities here announced Wednesday that a
new case of the Bird Flu was discovered in the province of Suez involing a
male child, thus bringing the number of people struck by this disease in the
country to 54 since its appearance in Egypt in Feb. 2006.
The afflicted child, Mahmoud Gharib, is two years old, said Dr Abdulrahman
Shaheen, spokesman for the ministry of Health, adding that the Flu symptoms
began to appear on the child last Monday, following which he was admitted to
the hospital for observation. He had come in contact with dead birds while
playing which resulted in his running up high fever and severe coughing and
other symptoms normally associated with the Bird Flu. This took place last
Friday.
The disease had struck dead 22 people in Egypt since its appearance, and
authorities here fear its resurgence mainly because poultry shops,
chicken-coop keepers at home, and bird collectors mishandle dead birds which
exposes these people to the deadly Flu. (end)
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