The World Health Organization has confirmed Myanmar's (Burma) first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection. The U.N. body and the country's health ministry found that a 7-year-old girl from Keng Tung in northeastern Myanmar had been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.

The young victim, Nan Kham Than, was among four people suspected of having the virus during an outbreak of the disease in poultry in mid-November, the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Tests confirmed that only Nan Kham Than was infected and she has since recovered after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

H5N1 began was identified in Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and led to the death or slaughter of millions of birds and has recently resurfaced. Human deaths have been reported in Indonesia and China, with fresh outbreaks in poultry in other countries during the winter months - when the virus typically flares.

According to the WHO, there have been 340 cases of bird flu in humans worldwide since 2003 — 208 of them fatal. Experts believe most human victims of the virus were infected through direct contact with sick birds. Although bird flu is difficult for humans to catch, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people and spark a flu pandemic.