ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has recorded its first humandeath from bird flu and five other people have been infectedwith the deadly H5N1 virus, the Health Ministry said onSaturday.

Health officials are also investigating a second death fromsuspected bird flu.

The cases were reported in the North West Frontier Provincein late October.

"Six cases were found positive for H5N1 avian influenzavirus," the Ministry of Health said in a statement. "Five ofthem have fully recovered."

The statement said one man with confirmed H5N1 died inhospital and his brother, who had not been tested, has alsodied. The second death is being investigated.

While Pakistan has registered cases of bird flu in poultrythis is the first time it has been reported in humans, FederalHealth Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari told Reuters.

The first poultry case appeared in early 2006.

Lashari said no more poultry or human cases had beendetected in the last two weeks. A World Health Organisation(WHO) team will arrive in Pakistan in the next few days.

It has so far appeared difficult for humans to contractH5N1, which is mainly an animal disease. But experts fear thestrain could spark a global pandemic and kill millions if itmutates to spread more easily.

The Geneva-based WHO said it was aware of eight suspectedhuman cases of H5N1 bird flu in Pakistan's Peshawar region.

"These cases were detected following a series of cullingoperations in response to outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry. One ofthe cases has now recovered and a further two suspected caseshave since died," the United Nations agency said in a statementon its Web site www.who.int.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the first known personinfected with H5N1 in Pakistan was a man who had worked as apoultry culler, who died as a result of the virus.

Two of his brothers had also fallen ill, one of whomsubsequently died. It has not been confirmed whether the seconddeath occurred as a result of the man caring for his brother orfrom exposure to infected birds kept in their home, Hartl said.

"The details are not 100 percent clear ... The virus hasnot been characterized yet," Hartl said, referring to analysison whether the bird flu strain had mutated. "There are severalcases within one family. We don't know how the family memberscontracted the virus."

The Pakistani cases bring to nearly 350 the number ofpeople worldwide who are known to have contracted the H5N1virus, which has killed more than 200 people since 2003.

Indonesia has had the heaviest toll, with 115 human casesincluding 92 deaths, followed by Vietnam with 100 cases and 46deaths, according to WHO figures.

(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis in Geneva; Editingby Myra MacDonald)