Egyptian Health Under-Secretary Hussein Sufi Abu-Taleb said on Saturday that six people were suspected of contracting the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in central Egypt, the official news agency MENA reported.

The six suspected cases came from Fayoum, a countryside town located some 85 km south of Cairo, and they have checked into the fever hospital and are under observation, said Abu-Taleb.

The cases, between three and 40 years of age, are suspected of being infected with the virus as they have been in close contact with sick domestic poultry, he said.

Egypt found the first bird flu case in dead poultry on Feb. 17, 2006 and then the virus spread to 20 of the country's 26 governorates.

The populous Arab country reported first human bird flu case on March 18 of 2006. Since then, 12 people have died of the fatal virus in Egypt and the other eight have recovered.

Source: Xinhua