An Egyptian man had been suspected of being infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the second human infection reported in the populous north African country in two days, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Hatem el-Gabali announced the appearance of a second suspected human case of bird flu in the governorate of Qalyubiya, some 40 km north of Cairo, said MENA.

The young man, however, had recovered from the disease, according to the report.

Mohammed Bahaa Abdel Moneim, 28, has been treated with Tamiflu, an antiviral medicine that can be used to reduce some of the symptoms of the bird flu disease, in hospital since Thursday after suffering bird flu-like symptoms.

Doctors described his conditions as stable and said that he might be discharged from hospital within two days.

His infection, if confirmed to be caused by the H5N1 strain of bird flu, would be the second human case of the disease in Egypt.

A 30-year-old woman from Qalyubiya died early Friday morning in a Cairo hospital where she had been treated for flu-like symptoms, the Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Medical experts had detected the H5N1 bird flu virus in her blood samples, said the ministry, adding that more samples of the woman had been sent to Britain for further tests.

Egypt reported its first case of H5N1 bird flu among wild birds and poultry on Feb. 17 and the government has since launched an aggressive campaign to bring the spread of the disease under control.

The deadly H5N1 strain has killed over 90 people worldwide since late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Most victims were infected after close contact with sick birds.

The virus currently can only jump from birds to humans, but scientists fear that it could mutate into a form capable of passing easily among humans and thus spark a global human flu pandemic which might kill millions.

Source: Xinhua