Pakistanis, WHO check if bird flu passed by people

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities and World Health Organisation (WHO) experts were trying to determine on Tuesday whether bird flu had passed from human to human after the country reported its first human death from the virus.

Pakistani health officials confirmed at the weekend that eight people had tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus in North West Frontier Province since late October, of which one person, who worked on a poultry farm, died.

A brother of the dead person, who had not been tested, also died. It was not yet clear if he was a victim of bird flu.

One hundred people with symptoms of flu living in the vicinity had been checked but all tested negative, said a Ministry of Health spokesman.

"No linkage has been developed about human-to-human transmission. We are safe but we have to be very cautious," said the spokesman, Orya Maqbool Jan Abbasi.

The last human case was reported on Nov. 23, he said.

Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said on Monday some of the seven affected people had not worked with poultry and authorities were tracing who they had been in contact with.

Six had recovered while one was being treated, a provincial health official said.