Pakistan says no threat of bird flu pandemic

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Wednesday there was no threat of a pandemic from bird flu, as World Health Organization experts visited the country's northwest which reported the first human death from the virus.

Pakistani authorities confirmed at the weekend eight human bird flu cases, including the one death, that the WHO said were likely a combination of infections from poultry and limited person to person transmission due to close contact.

"There is no threat of epidemic or pandemic and there are no fresh cases being reported," Ministry of Health spokesman Orya Maqbool Jan Abbasi told Reuters. The last human case was reported on November 23.

"I think we are safe, but we are very cautions and have taken all the precautionary measures."

A WHO report is due in the coming days, Abbasi said.

(Reporting by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Sanjeev Miglani)