Health experts worry that Bird Flu could mutate and kill millions

Two Egyptian children test positive for bird flu

Compiled by John Stokes

	Egypt has the largest number of confirmed human bird flu cases outside Asia..

Cairo, EGYPT -- Two Egyptian children have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. The total number of human cases of the disease in the most populous Arab country is now offcially 29, Egypt's health ministry says.

"There are two new cases of bird flu," Amr Kandeel, head of communicable disease control at the health ministry, told Reuters. "It is from exposure to dead birds."

The health ministry identified the children as 6-year-old Rihab Aboul Magd of the southern province of Qena and 5-year-old Mahmoud Gumaa Mohamed Hassan of Minya in central Egypt.

The children, a girl and a boy, had tested positive on Monday after being admitted to hospital suffering from high fevers. They were in stable condition, Kandeel said.

Thirteen Egyptians have died from bird flu since it first surfaced in the country's poultry a year ago. Most of those who fell ill were reported to have had contact with sick or dead household birds, primarily in northern Egypt.

Egypt has the largest number of confirmed human bird flu cases outside Asia.

Health experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from human to human, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.