One dead, five infected with bird flu in Pakistan

By Alistair Scrutton

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has recorded its first human death from bird flu and five other people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Health officials are also investigating a second death from suspected bird flu.

The cases were reported in the North West Frontier Province in late October.

"Six cases were found positive for H5N1 avian influenza virus," the Ministry of Health said in a statement. "Five of them have fully recovered."

The statement said one man with confirmed H5N1 died in hospital and his brother, who had not been tested, has also died. The second death is being investigated.

While Pakistan has registered cases of bird flu in poultry this is the first time it has been reported in humans, Federal Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari told Reuters.

The first poultry case appeared in early 2006.

Lashari said no more poultry or human cases had been detected in the last two weeks. A World Health Organisation (WHO) team will arrive in Pakistan in the next few days.