The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta confirmed on Wednesday that child is from Dhaka, the capital; an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoted Saluddin Khan, a government official, as saying.
The virus rarely mutates into humans but experts fear it could combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic resulting in the death of millions of people.
Bangladesh authorities informed the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) promptly about the case but it took time for the laboratory testing to be completed to confirm the case.
A statement by the Directorate General of Health Services did not give the child's name, age, or other details, but said the child was recovering after treatment. Bangladesh has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of birds in recent months after detection of the H5N1 virus.
The H5N1 virus was first detected in Bangladesh in March last year and the deadly bird flu has spread through 47 of Bangladesh's 64 districts. The culling of poultry and destruction of about 2 million eggs caused losses of about 45 billion taka ($650 million).
According to WHO reports, other than Bangladesh, 14 countries had reported 382 cases of bird flu in humans, including 241 fatalities since 2003.
