XINHUA NEWS
17/11/2006
Egypt reported on Thursday a new bird flu-striken area in the north of the country where domestic birds were tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the official MENA news agency reported.
The area is located in Manshyat Sultan district in al-Menofiya governorate, 65 km north of Cairo, the report said.
The veterinary teams were culling all birds in the infected region, cleaning the area and examining people who had contacts with the infected poultry, MENA quoted a statement released by the Egyptian Health Ministry as saying.
No symptoms were detected on people who had contacted the birds and samples were being examined at the Health Ministry labs, the statement said.
This is the second new bird flu-infected area reported in Egypt in a week as the Egyptian Health Ministry said on Saturday that new infections of the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus among domestic fowls was discovered in Luxor, some 680 km south of Cairo.
Egypt found the first bird flu case in dead poultry on Feb. 17, and then the virus spread to 20 governorates of the country's 26 in total. So far seven people had died of bird flu virus in the country.
