Health authorities in Egypt announced last week that another child has been hospitalized with the H5N1 avian virus, the country's second case in a child in less than a week.
The 8-year-old boy from the Fayoum district about 85 km's south of Cairo, was hospitalized in Cairo last week after becoming sick with a fever and experiencing breathing difficulties and pulmonary inflammation.
His case which has yet to be confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO), will take the number of cases in Egypt to 47.
Health officials say the boy is receiving oseltamivir (Tamiflu).
Earlier this month a 25-year-old woman, also from Fayoum governorate, died of an H5N1 infection but health officials say there appears to be no connection between the boy and the woman.
Egypt has reported four H5N1 cases in the last two weeks including the one fatality.
There have been no reports so far on how the boy may have picked up the bird flu virus and most cases to date in Egypt have been in women or girls, who are the primary caretakers of poultry, however the last two infections have been in boys and infected poultry could be the culprit.
According to a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the spread of the bird flu virus in Egypt is related to a large and quickly moving poultry supply chain, for which bio-security levels are low.
The report says recent outbreaks appear to be linked to the close proximity of ducks and chickens raised on rooftops and backyards to industrial poultry facilities and says ducks are instrumental in the spread of the H5N1 virus.