Two-year-old girl in Australia tests positive for H5N1 bird flu: WHO

Geneva: A two and a half year old girl tested positive for H5N1 bird flu and needed hospital intensive care treatment in Australia after travelling to...

Geneva: A two-and-a-half-year-old girl tested positive for H5N1 bird flu and needed hospital intensive care treatment in Australia after travelling to India, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"This is the first confirmed human infection caused by avian influenza A (H5N1) virus detected and reported by Australia," the WHO said in a statement.

"Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, the exposure likely occurred in India" where the girl had travelled, and where this group of "viruses has been detected in birds in the past", the UN health agency added.

The WHO assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low.

The girl had travelled to Kolkata from February 12 to 29. She did not have any known exposure to sick people or animals while in the city.