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Bird flu kills first human in Pakistan, child first case in Myanmar
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Bird flu hit two countries Saturday as it was confirmed that a man who died culling infected birds in Pakistan became the country’s first human fatality, while a seven-year-old girl became Myanmar’s first human case.
Pakistan’s health ministry on Saturday also confirmed that one of the dead man’s brothers who took part in the cull also died, but he was not tested for the virus, a ministry spokesman told AFP. It was not immediately known why the second man was not tested.
But the spokesman ruled out any case of human-to-human transmission — a development that could have signalled a mutation of the virus with the possibility to kill millions around the world.
Six people were confirmed to have been infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, all of them in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, the ministry said in a statement.
“Five of them have fully recovered. One of the confirmed cases died in hospital while his brother, who could not be tested, has also died,” it said.
It’s been a while since we’ve had any good H5N1 fearmongering, huh?