Egyptian Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali announced on Sunday that a new suspected case of human bird flu had been found in the country's Nile delta region, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported.

Shaimaa Khairi el-Desoqi was being treated in a local hospital in the governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh, some 125 km north of Cairo. The 18-year-old girl, who had come into contact with dead birds, started to show bird flu symptoms on Thursday, including high temperature, sore throat and muscle ache, according to the report. Members of her family are currently being tested for the avian influenza virus.

The latest case brought to five the total number of suspected human bird flu cases in the populous north African country. Egypt confirmed on March 18 that a woman who had been raising chickens at home died of H5N1 bird flu virus, the first human case of the lethal disease in the country.

The other patients either have recovered or are still under treatment in hospitals.

Egypt reported first case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in dead poultry on Feb. 17 and the government has since taken tough measures to curb the spread of the disease.

The deadly H5N1 strain has killed over 100 people worldwide since its outbreak in southeast Asia in 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.