Special Report: Worldwide fight against bird flu

    CAIRO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian professor said Friday that a new vaccine developed by the country's National Research Center (NRC) was confirmed effective against the H5N1 bird flu virus, the state MENA news agency reported.

    Mohamed Ahmed Ali, professor of virology at the NRC, was quoted as saying tests confirmed that the new vaccine is effective to develop immunity against the deadly virus.

    "A production line for the new vaccine will be contracted within two weeks," added the professor.

    Egypt reported its first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year. The death toll of the human cases of bird flu in the populous country is 23.

    Egypt is the most affected country by the deadly avian influenza outside Asia.

    According to statistics of the World Health Organization as of Feb. 5, some 405 people in 15 countries have contracted the virus and 254 of them died of the disease.