According to the Bangladeshi health authorities a 16-month-old boy has been confirmed as the country's first human case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The child has apparently recovered with treatment, but there is concern over how he contracted the virus. The child lived in a slum area near a chicken farm and the case was found in routine surveillance. A major culling programme is now underway and authorities say it was simply a matter of time before a person was infected by the H5N1 virus.
Experts fear the H5N1 strain will eventually mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and trigger a pandemic, especially in countries such as Bangladesh where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry.
While the virus rarely infects people, there have been 382 human cases worldwide since 2003, including 241 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation - most traced to contact with infected birds.
