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

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

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has commended efforts of the Indian government to stop the spread of the deadly avian influenza in the province of West Bengal. The FAO said authorities were able to control the spread of the H5N1 strain with their swift and comprehensive measures.

In a statement, U.N. FAO veterinary expert Mohinder Oberoi said: "Intensive culling in the predominantly backyard poultry sector appears to have stopped the disease in its tracks." He said this after a recent visit to the affected areas, where no new outbreaks have emanated since Feb. 2

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

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