CAIRO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Two Egyptian boys have been confirmed of contracting bird flu on Wednesday, bringing the number of cases of the deadly avian influenza to 74 in the populous country, the Egyptian Health Ministry said.

    Abdel Rahman Sabery, a 4-year-old boy from Daqahlia governorate in the Nile Delta, and Sameh Ayoub, a 3-year-old boy from Sohag inUpper Egypt were admitted to hospital on Wednesday suffering from symptoms of the virus, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shahine said in a statement.

    He added that the two boys' condition is stable after being treated with Tamiflu.

    On Monday, a four-year-old Egyptian girl Nada Ahmed Reda from Daqahlia, north of Cairo, died after contracting the disease of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the 27th death case in the country.

    Egypt is the most affected country by the virus 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.

    Most of the victims of the fatal virus in Egypt were young girls and women. Generally, they were in charge of looking after poultry in rural areas.

    While the H5N1 virus rarely infects people, experts say they fear it could mutate into a form that people could easily pass to one another, sparking a pandemic that could kill many in a short time.