Egypt announced the 19th human bird flu case on Wednesday after a 27-year-old woman from central Egypt was tested positive to the deadly H5N1 virus, the official news agency MENA reported.

The woman, identified as Warda Eid Ahmed, came from a small village in central Egyptian governorate of Beni Sweif, some 120 km south of Cairo, according to Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shahin.

Shahin said that the infected woman, who was admitted to hospital on Jan. 13 because of severe pneumonia, is being given the anti-viral Tamiflu drug doses.

It is Egypt's first human bird flu case in 2007, also the 19th case since the outbreak of the epidemic.

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, 10 people have died of the fatal virus in Egypt.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2007)