A two-year-old girl has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in north China's Shanxi Province, a provincial government official said on Saturday.

The girl, surnamed Peng, was found ill on January 7 in the central Hunan Province. Her grandparents took her to Luliang City of Shanxi on January 11. She was taken to the Fenyang Hospital on Wednesday and then to the Shanxi Children's Hospital on Wednesday night after she got worse, said an official with the Shanxi provincial health department.

The patient was in critical condition, the official said.

According to the test result of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the girl tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

The people who had close contact with the patient are under medical observation. No one has been found ill so far.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2009)