An Egyptian woman has died of bird flu, the health ministry announced Friday, marking the country’s third death this year by the H5N1 infection.
The 43-year-old woman died in the southern city of Asyut, five days after she was hospitalized at the facility where she worked as a nurse, a ministry official from her hometown said. The woman also raised birds, an activity which could have caused her infection, the official added.
Her death brings to three the number of Egyptians who have died from bird flu since the start of 2015, said the health ministry, which reported 10 deaths last year.
According to the World Health Organization, 18 new cases of H5N1 infection were confirmed in Egypt during the most recent reporting period, from December 4 to January 6. This was the highest ever monthly number of human cases in Egypt, the U.N. public health agency said.
The WHO has warned that whenever bird flu viruses are circulating in poultry, there is a risk of sporadic infections or small clusters of human cases.
Egypt’s H5N1 cases have largely been in poor rural areas in the south, where villagers tend to keep and slaughter poultry in the home.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 400 people worldwide since it first appeared in 2003, most of them in southeast Asia.
It is one of several deadly or potentially deadly strains of bird flu that are closely monitored by the World Health Organization.