( AP ) - Myanmar has confirmed the country's first case of a human being infected by bird flu - a 7-year-old girl who has since fully recovered, state media reported Saturday.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the World Health Organization had confirmed that the girl from Keng Tung in northeastern Myanmar had been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.
She was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, it reported.
According to WHO, there have been 340 cases of bird flu in humans worldwide since 2003 - 208 of them fatal.
Experts believe most human victims of the virus were infected through direct contact with sick birds. Although bird flu is difficult for humans to catch, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people and spark a flu pandemic.
The New Light of Myanmar said the young victim, Nan Kham Than, was among four people suspected of being infected with the virus during a bird flu outbreak in poultry in mid-November. Laboratory tests confirmed that only the girl had H5N1.
The Health Ministry for 10 days closely monitored 689 persons who were involved in culling chickens or lived near the affected farms, and found that no other people were infected, the newspaper said.
Myanmar reported its first bird flu outbreak in March 2006 in the central part of the country, but until now had reported no human infections.
H5N1 began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, leading to the death or slaughter of millions of birds.
Bird flu has recently resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh poultry outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.
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