A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has died of bird flu, the second in a week, bringing the total death toll from the fatal virus in the African country to 25, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

The woman, from the Al-Murg neighborhood in Cairo, died of respiratory failure on Wednesday. She is the second person to die of the virus this year in Egypt.

On Tuesday MENA said a six-year-old Egyptian boy from Qalyubia, in northern Egypt, had died of the H5N1 virus.

Egypt`s first case of bird flu was recorded in 2006, and 66 people have since contracted the disease.

As of April 21, a total of 420 bird flu cases have been registered worldwide since the virus was first detected in 2003, resulting in 257 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Although there have been no incidences of human-to-human infection, experts fear that the bird flu virus may mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted from person to person, causing a global pandemic.
sections: World News