CAIRO, March 10 (Reuters) - An 18-month-old Egyptian girl has contracted bird flu and is in stable condition, the state-run news agency quoted the Egyptian Health Ministry as saying on Tuesday.

The Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that Habiba Mahmoud Mohamed, from the Manoufiya province in northern Egypt, showed symptoms after coming into contact with dead birds. She is the 58th case of bird flu in the Arab country.

She was given the antiviral drug Tamiflu at an Egyptian hospital, MENA said. It was not yet known if she had the H5N1 virus.

Egypt is one of the few countries affected by bird flu that does not compensate farmers when poultry is destroyed, though many experts say this is the best way to ensure rapid detection of new outbreaks.

Some 5 million Egyptian households depend on poultry as a main source of food and income.

Since 2003, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has infected at least 410 people in 15 countries and killed at least 254 of them. It has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds in 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

While H5N1 rarely infects people, experts fear it could mutate into a form that people could easily pass to one another, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. (Reporting by Will Rasmussen; Editing by Charles Dick)

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