Cairo - Two children from Egypt's southern provinces of Kena and Menia have tested positive for bird flu, State Middle East News Agency reported Tuesday. The six-year-old girl and five-year old boy were hospitalised at fever hospitals in their home towns, according to Health Ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman Shahine.
Earlier this month, a two-year-old boy has tested positive for the virus in the southern Aswan province.
Since the first outbreak of bird flu in Egypt in 2005, 13 of the 29 people who contracted the illness have died.
After an initial panic, which saw many Egyptians get rid of their birds, people in rural areas have resumed raising domestic poultry to sell at public markets or as a source of cheap protein.
Previous cases of infection were caused by exposure to sick birds. If a person is infected, the Egyptian health ministry usually monitors family members for signs of the disease.
Almost two months ago, the Egyptian government suspected that a mutated strain of the virus with "reduced susceptibility" to the Tamiflu vaccine had emerged.
But medical experts confirmed shortly afterwards that the virus had in fact not mutated to a new and more dangerous strain transmitted between humans.
