Health workers have begun culling of poultry in an attempt to combat a fresh bird flu outbreak in the country's eastern state West Bengal, officials said on Monday. State workers planned to destroy nearly 50,000 domestic birds in two districts where officials found infected poultry.

Culling began in a radius of five kilometers (3.1 miles) around the new area of infection. While 22,400 birds are to be culled in Raghunathganj-II, the culling target in respect of Jiaganj is 27,200 birds

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on its Web site that an 11-year-old Egyptian boy has become the North African nation's 46th infection of bird flu. According to the organization, the boy tested positive on February 26 with the H5N1 strain of the deadly virus that has killed 20 people in the country since it was first discovered in March 2006.

The announcement of the boy from Menoufia governorate, a few hours from Cairo, comes only a day after the ministry of health reported that a 25-year-old woman died as a result of the deadly virus

A 25-year-old woman from Fayoum, an hour southwest of Cairo, has died in a Giza hospital as a result of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Suzanne Ali Salah had been reported infected last week and was being treated with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Salah became the 20th victim in the North African nation to have died from the deadly avian flu since it was first discovered in March 2006, the ministry of health said on Tuesday

Egypt's ministry of health on Saturday confirmed the human infection of the deadly bird flu virus in less than one week. The 25-year-old woman is the 45th human case of the H5N1 strain of the avian flu since the disease was first discovered in the Egyptian population in March 2006.

According to the ministry, in statements reported by the official news agency MENA, the woman has been transferred to Cairo after developing symptoms similar to those of bird flu. She is currently being treated by the antiviral drug Tamiflu, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted by the news agency as saying

he recent, worst-ever outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in the India's state of West Bengal seems to have been brought under control by the swift and comprehensive measures taken by the country's authorities, though continued vigilance was crucial, the United Nations agricultural agency says on Wednesday.

"Intensive culling in the predominantly backyard poultry sector appears to have stopped the disease in its tracks," Mohinder Oberoi, an expert of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said after a recent field trip to the affected areas, where no new outbreaks have been seen since February 2, 2008