--- title: H5N1: Egypt Sees Second Bird Flu Death in Two Days description: It's the second bird flu death in Egypt in two days: a 30-year-old woman had contact with infected birds canonical: https://time.com/3594402/egypt-bird-flu-h5n1/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-19T13:19:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:20.173Z article:section: Health og:title: Egypt Sees Second Bird Flu Death in Two Days og:description: 30-year-old woman had contact with infected birds og:url: https://time.com/3594402/egypt-bird-flu-h5n1/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc372dd6a46b86cc/6987697b428a9e5a50cc5741/egypt-bird-flu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Poultry market in Egypt og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Egypt Sees Second Bird Flu Death in Two Days twitter:description: 30-year-old woman had contact with infected birds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc372dd6a46b86cc/6987697b428a9e5a50cc5741/egypt-bird-flu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Egypt Sees Second Bird Flu Death in Two Days > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=8c93fe87-130c-4073-872e-6325463fbb98&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Flu Shot Is Not Like the Others [Watch (HLS stream): This Flu Shot Is Not Like the Others](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1thSi60s.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2014-10-30. Some people may get a new flu shot that’s made with dog cells instead of chicken eggs_ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 19, 2014 1:19 PM UTC  A poultry merchant feeds a pigeon from her mouth in a popular market in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 19 2014. A poultry merchant feeds a pigeon from her mouth in a popular market in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 19 2014. Khaled Elfiqi—EPA by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 19, 2014 1:19 PM UTC Egypt’s health ministry [said](http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/11/19/world/middleeast/19reuters-health-birdflu-egypt.html) Tuesday that a woman died from H5N1 bird flu after coming into contact with infected birds, one day after another case proved fatal. The 30-year-0ld woman was reported in a state newspaper to have died in a hospital in the southern city of Assiut, according to Reuters, just a day after a 19-year-old woman had died in the same city. Seven cases of the virus, including three deaths, have been identified in Egypt this year. H5N1 doesn’t appear to transmit efficiently between human beings, the World Health Organization says, and Egypt’s cases have largely revolved around rural areas where villages slaughter or keep poultry. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/11/19/world/middleeast/19reuters-health-birdflu-egypt.html)\] ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This year, your annual flu shot might be more high tech than the ones you've had before. For decades, flu shots could only be made with the help of hundreds of thousands of chicken eggs. Scientists grew the influenza virus in the chicken eggs. Then purified and modified it to go into the flu vaccine. But that process took months for the virus to grow. In 2012 the U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved an entirely new way of making flu vaccines. Bypassing chicken eggs altogether and using animal cells instead. The Novartis Plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina is the only facility in the U. S.. Approved to produce a cell culture- based flu vaccine known as Flucelvax. This Influenza vaccine is grown using cells from dog kidneys. And the process is much faster. Taking 65 to 75 hours. Compared to the months it took to grow with [ UNKNOWN ] [ MUSIC ] The process begins with growing enough kidney cells to serve as the viruses incubators. Over 20 days the cells are put into a culture that encourages them to divide rapidly. And as the cells grow in number they are moved into increasingly larger vats. They start out in 5 liter. Containers and end up in a 5000 liter tank. Once there, the cells are infected with the flu virus. These samples of virus arrive frozen and are chosen each year by the World Health Organization in the spring. They determine which flu strains they believe will be circulating later that year. Year. After the cells produce enough virus, the viral particles are strained out, purified, and treated so they can't actually cause flu but can still alert the immune system to mount a response against the virus. 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