Pakistan confirmed the country's first death from the bird flu virus on Saturday, the health ministry says in a press statement.
Six people had been infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, all of them in North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, the statement adds, "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."
In Burma, officially known as Myanmar, a seven-year-old girl has become the military-run country's first confirmed human case of bird flu. The girl was hospitalized in eastern Shan state in late November after developing fever and headache, but was discharged this week after showing signs of recovery, a Burmese health official said she was the first human case of the deadly bird flu there.
Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd death on Friday.
A 47-year-old man died a day earlier in a Jakarta hospital, Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono said. The man fell ill on Dec. 2, 2007 and was admitted with flu-like symptoms, becoming Indonesia's 115th person infected with the disease.
In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month.
Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death. The two were believed to have eaten a traditional dish known as "beggar's chicken," in which the bird is wrapped in lotus leaves and baked. However, the cause of infection remained unclear, according to reports.
Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, and experts say that no human bird flu cases have ever been traced to eating properly cooked poultry or eggs. It is impossible to predict what the H5N1 virus will do, but more bird flu outbreaks often occur when temperatures drop as winter sets in, according to scientists.
The virus has killed 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
