YANGON - A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Myanmar girl has become the military-run country's first confirmed human case of bird flu, an official and the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.

The girl was hospitalised in eastern Shan state in late November, after developing fever and headache, but was discharged this week after showing signs of recovery, the Myanmar health official said.

'She is the first human case (of bird flu),' the official from Myanmar's livestock department said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed that the unnamed girl was the first case, adding that a team of Myanmar health officials were investigating to try to confirm the source of her infection.

'The case was detected through routine surveillance following an outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in the area in mid-November,' the WHO said in a statement.

'She has now recovered,' it said.

In Yangon, the city's biggest poultry market was crowded with shoppers on Saturday, but one official there said that he was not aware of Myanmar's first human case of bird flu.

'I have not heard about it,' the official said when asked about the girl.

He added: 'Sales of ducks and chicken are very normal.'

The deadly virus is usually transmitted to humans from infected birds.

Scientists fear however that it may mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a deadly global pandemic that could kill millions and, the World Bank has said, could cost up to two trillion dollars.

The official New Light of Myanmar daily confirmed that the girl was now 'in good condition after receiving treatment'.

People who have had close contact with the girl have also been monitored but none have shown signs of the virus, the state-run paper said Saturday.

'The ministry monitored persons with close contact (with the girl) for 10 days and confirmed that (these) other persons were not infected with the virus,' the paper said, adding that health authorities had killed chickens in the area where the girl lives.

Since Myanmar discovered its first outbreak of the virus among poultry in the central city of Mandalay in February 2006, authorities have killed more than 700,000 chickens, ducks and quail, officials said.

The UN's agricultural agency has provided 1.4 million dollars in assistance to help Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations, fight the disease. -- AFP