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

Egypt's ministry of health on Monday confirmed that a four-year-old girl has been infected with the deadly bird flu virus. With her infection the total number of cases in the Arab world's most populous nation is at 44.

The young girl was detected with the avian flu virus in Minya, approximately 160 miles south of Cairo, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen told the official news agency MENA

Still reeling from the death of a 22-year-old man in central Hunan, Chinese authorities reported a fresh bird flu outbreak among poultry in Tibet.

In a statement, the agriculture ministry said 132 poultry had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a village outside the regional capital Lhasa and about 7,700 birds had been slaughtered to control the second outbreak of bird flu in the Himalayan region this year