Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan today reported its first human case of bird flu after a man working with infected poultry in western Kyoto caught the disease, the Associated Press reported, citing the nation's Health Ministry.

The ministry examined 86 people who may have been exposed to bird flu, and one tested positive for antibodies for the disease, with four other people posting inconclusive results, AP said. The man's only symptom was a headache, AP reported.

The potential transmission of bird flu between humans is the World Health Organization's worst fear, Francois Xavier Meslin, the group's chief of animal diseases, said yesterday.

An Asian outbreak of avian influenza, known as bird flu, killed at least 32 people this year. The H5N1 bird-flu strain, which is potentially fatal to humans, has been passed from infected poultry to people in contact with them, without any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.

(AP, 12-22)

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 22, 2004 07:47 EST