CAIRO, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian girl died of bird flu on Monday, bringing the death toll of the human cases of bird flu in the populous country to 23, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

    Samiyah Salem, who was from a village in the southern Egyptian governorate of Asyut, died Monday evening, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shahin was quoted as saying.

    The 16-year-old girl, who contracted the fatal disease after exposure to infected household poultry in her house, was the 51st case of human bird flu in the country.

    She was sent to hospital for treatment on Saturday after suffering from fever and breathing problems, said the spokesman, adding the death is the first in the past eight months after the 22nd human death on April 11.

    Egypt reported its first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year.