Property and business interruption

20.4, bird Flu

International: bird flu cases worldwide topped 200 after a dozen people were confirmed to have been infected with the virus in Egypt, according to a statement by the World Health Organization. An 18-year-old girl from the north Egyptian governorate of Minufiyah is the country’s latest confirmed fatality, the WHO said. She developed symptoms on Apr 5 and died nine days later. The cases in Egypt of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza take to 204 the number of people infected with the lethal virus since late 2003, according to the WHO. Of those, 113 have been fatal. So far this year, 60 H5N1 cases and 37 fatalities have been reported worldwide, compared with 95 cases and 41 fatalities in the whole of 2005. Countries to have reported human cases are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Egypt.