A woman in Egypt has died of bird flu, bringing the number of bird flu fatalities in that country to 22.

Egypt's state news agency, Mena, quotes health ministry officials as saying the 30-year-old victim first showed signs of infection on April 2 and was taken to a Cairo hospital April 9 for treatment.

The woman was the third person in Egypt to die of the disease within the last two weeks.

Last week, a young man died in a hospital in Alexandria and another woman died earlier in a hospital near Cairo.

Nearly five million Egyptian households depend on poultry for food or income. The government says this makes it unlikely authorities will be able to eradicate the disease, despite a large-scale poultry vaccination program.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.