The H5N1 strain has hit at least 45 countries and killed more than 150 people worldwide.

The aggressive H5N1 virus strain has reached so far 45 countries and has killed more than 150 people worldwide. Now, the Pharaohs' country experiences the third highest number of H5N1 human deaths after Indonesia and China. "A 15-year-old girl died Monday from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the second such death in as many days in Egypt," the health ministry in Cairo said.

The previous victim was a 30-year-old woman from the same family, from a village in the central Nile delta region, who died on Sunday. Nine people in Egypt have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu since the virus first appeared in the country's poultry in February.

Seventeen people are still being treated for bird flu. The girl was admitted to a hospital on December 20, in the Garbiya governorate in the Nile delta, after being found positive for H5N1. "She is from the same family, yes, she was given tamiflu but this didn't work out," said Hassan el-Bushra, the WHO (World Health Organization) regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance.

A 26-year-old man from the family has also been hospitalized with bird flu. The family raised ducks in their home and had slaughtered the flock after a number of ducks got sick and died. Now, all the birds in the house and in the neighboring homes were slaughtered and the area disinfected.

Since February, H5N1 has spread to at least 19 of the country's 26 provinces, and the first human case was found on March 18. Egypt - the world's most populous Arab state - is situated along a major route for migratory birds, which makes it extremely vulnerable to the spreading of the disease.