CAIRO, Dec 1 (Aswat Masriya) – Three more deaths were reported in Egypt among patients diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu during the past three days, raising the death toll from disease to six cases in Egypt this year, a health ministry source said.

Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, ministry of health spokesman, told Aswat Masriya that four new cases of bird flu were discovered in Upper Egypt in the past three days.

So far, 11 patients have been diagnosed with bird flu in Egypt this year, raising the number of bird flu cases discovered in the country since the disease surfaced to 184, Abdel Ghaffar said.

The health ministry spokesman said that despite to the increase in the rate of deaths from the disease this year, over 50 percent of those infected, the rate of infection is in decline.

Bird flu has so far killed 58 patients since its outbreak in Egypt, Abdel Ghaffar said.

Infection is usually centred in rural areas, where citizens, especially women, frequently come in direct contact with live poultry.