Egypt confirmed on Sunday the first influenza A/H1N1 death, according to the Ministry of Health.

The first death is an Egyptian woman, 28, who came back from Saudi Arabia after making Umrah (pilgrimage to Mecca at any time of the year) and she lives in el-Gharbiya Governorate, 80 km north of Cairo, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine said in a statement.

Up till now, Egypt reported 127 cases of A/H1N1 flu, about 106 have recovered.

On June 2, Egypt reported its first A/H1N1 flu case, a 12-year- old Egyptian-American girl coming from the United States via the Netherlands.

Egypt, the most populous Arab country hit hard by the fatal bird flu in 2006, decided in late April to cull all pigs in the country to stem the highly infectious flu A/H1N1.

So far, the novel flu virus has caused 94,512 infections in some 136 countries and regions, with 429 deaths, according to latest figures released by the World Health Organization, which on June 11 formally announced the first pandemic in the 21st century.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2009)