(Adds comments on why treatment failed) CAIRO, April 11 (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Egyptian girl has died in hospital of the H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the number of deaths from the disease in Egypt to 14, a health ministry official said on Wednesday. Marianna Kameel Mikhail, who was admitted to hospital in Cairo on Thursday, died of respiratory failure on Tuesday evening despite treatment with the antiviral Tamiflu and being placed on a respirator, a ministry statement said. Amr Kandeel, director of communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health, said the treatment failed because the girl did not enter hospital until a week to 10 days after the symptoms started. As in several other fatal cases in Egypt, the patient and her relatives denied she had had any recent contact with domestic poultry, Kandeel added. Out of a total of 34 humans who have caught bird flu in Egypt, 14 have died and 19 have recovered. A two-year-old girl from central Egypt is under treatment and Kandeel said she was in a good condition. The health ministry statement said none of Mikhail's family were found to have bird flu. The disease hit Egypt in February 2006 and did extensive damage to the poultry industry and the economy as a whole. But the government still finds it hard to enforce restrictions on the movement and sale of live poultry. Egypt has the highest number of confirmed human bird flu cases outside Asia.
