A baby from southern Egypt has contracted the bird flu virus, which brings the number of human cases to 55 in the country, the Health Ministry announced Sunday.

    Suleiman Abul-Wafa, one-year-and-a-half, showed the symptoms on Friday after he contacted with infected birds, the ministry said in a statement.

    The boy from the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minia, some 220 km south of Cairo, is now in a stable condition after being treated with taking the antiviral vaccine Tamiflu, according to the statement.

    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.

    The World Health Organization (WTO) has said that as of Feb. 5 this year, some 405 people in 15 countries have contracted the virus and 254 of them died of the disease.