The Egyptian Health Ministry said Friday that a 25-year-old woman has contracted bird flu virus, bringing the human cases of the fatal avian influenza to 65 in the populous country.

The woman, Hadiye Salah Ragab who comes from a northern neighborhood of Cairo, was admitted to hospital on April 11 and is now in critical condition after receiving treatment, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Saadia Abdul Latif, a 33-year-old Egyptian woman from the Kafr el-Sheikh governorate, was also hospitalized after contracting the deadly virus.

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 is 23 so far in Egypt.

According to the latest statistics of the World Health Organization on its website, some 418 people in 15 countries and regions have contracted the virus and 257 of them died of the disease.