(Adds WHO confirmation, previous case recovered) CAIRO, March 27 (Reuters) - Two Egyptian children have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the total number of human cases of the disease in the most populous Arab country to 29, Egypt's health ministry said on Tuesday. "There are two new cases of bird flu," Amr Kandeel, head of communicable disease control at the health ministry, told Reuters. "It is from exposure to dead birds." A World Health Organisation official confirmed the two new cases. The health ministry identified the children as 6-year-old Rihab Aboul Magd of the southern province of Qena and 5-year-old Mahmoud Gumaa Mohamed Hassan of Minya in central Egypt. The children, a girl and a boy, tested positive on Monday after being admitted to hospital suffering from high fevers. They were in stable condition, Kandeel said. Thirteen Egyptians have died from bird flu since it first surfaced in the country's poultry a year ago. Most of those who fell ill were reported to have had contact with sick or dead household birds, primarily in northern Egypt. Egypt has the most cases of confirmed human bird flu outside Asia, and with 11 cases so far this year is one of the top two hardest-hit countries worldwide in 2007, along with Indonesia. The new case comes just two days after a 3-year-old girl tested positive in the southern town of Aswan. The WHO official said the girl had largely recovered and her life was no longer in danger. Health experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from human to human, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
