CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian girl has contracted the bird flu virus, bringing the number of human cases of the avian influenza to 60, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

    The patient is a 30-month-old girl comes from the southern governorate of Qena, some 450 km south of Cairo, local media quoted Abdel-Rahman Shahine as saying.

    The baby girl showed the symptoms of a fever on Monday and was admitted to hospital for treatment, said Shahine, adding that infection with the avian influenza virus was confirmed on Thursday.

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

    According to the latest statistics of the WHO, some 412 people in 15 countries and regions have contracted the virus and 256 of them died of the disease.