The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday said a child was infected with the deadly H5N1, the strain of bird flu that infects people, in January this year and was cured before diagnosis. The DGHS, as part of its routine surveillance, sent a swab with samples from naso-pharyngeal of the 16-month-old boy to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta which confirmed the H5N1 infection Wednesday. "When the child came to us it was diagnosed with strain A positive but the H5 was found negative. However, one and a half months later when we sent the sample to Atlanta, as part of our routine surveillance, it was confirmed after culturing the virus that it was H5 positive," said Prof Mahmudur Rahman, director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). He said Bangladesh has no proper facilities to culture viruses. The boy, who lives in Kamalapur in Dhaka, was cured without any medicine for Influenza. He was provided with medicines for respiratory infection for 14 days, he said adding that perhaps the infection was not that strong. The chances of survival after H5N1 strain infection is 40 percent across the globe, he said. As the particular child was not considered a suspected H5N1 infection case, its samples was not sent abroad at that time, he added. A press statement from the DGHS yesterday said following an investigation of DGHS and ICDDR,B, it was confirmed that the child is now totally cured. The National Advisory Committee meeting on Avian Influenza yesterday reviewed the overall bird flu situation in the country. The meeting decided to strengthen DGHS's steps to combat Avian Influenza. Experts in the meeting also said the Avian Influenza situation of the country is under control and there is nothing to be worried about.