Two Indonesian teenagers are confirmed to have died of bird flu, making the nation the world´s worst-hit in terms of human fatalities with 44 deaths recognised by the World Health Organisation.

Indonesia reported its first bird flu deaths in July last year and has seen a steady rise in its toll since then as it has failed to carry out the widespread culls seen in other countries hard-hit by the deadly H5N1 virus.

The world´s first first lab-confirmed human-to-human transmission of bird flu occurred in the archipelago nation three months ago in a cluster of seven deaths, sparking serious concern among scientists.

That raised the spectre of a dangerous viral mutation that may have permitted efficient transmission among people, bringing nearer a global human flu pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

But the slight mutation that took place was determined to be insignificant.

The latest two deaths in the world´s fourth most populous nation were a 16-year-old boy who died Monday night and a 16-year-old girl who died Tuesday, both from Jakarta or its surroundings.

"Samples from both of them have been confirmed as positive by both a health ministry laboratory and by the US NAMRU (Naval Medical Research Unit) laboratory," said Runizar Ruzin, from the health ministry´s bird flu center.

The ministry last week changed its method for confirming a bird flu death to the World Health Organisation.

Previously samples were considered positive if tested at a WHO-affiliated laboratory, usually in Hong Kong. But if two national laboratories confirm H5N1, it is now reported to the WHO as a death.

The US lab is affiliated to the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

I Nyoman Kandun, the director of the health ministry´s communicable disease control center, confirmed both cases but declined to give further details.

Both victims were thought to have come into contact with dead or sick poultry, health officials said.

Ruzin defended the government, which has been accused of failing to act quickly to stem the virus´s spread, saying its fight has been "excellent."

"The health ministry has been dispatching more teams now to carry out surveillance on poultry and humans across the country," he said.

Meanwhile an Indonesian health official alleged that patient treatment at Sulianti Saroso hospital, where many Indonesian patients including the teenage boy have been admitted, was inadequate.

"Their lives are treated very cheaply because doctors who are assigned to monitor them are not experts but fresh graduates" from medical schools who are assigned as interns there, said the official on condition of anonymity.

The official said that when specialized doctors are available, they do not personally examine them "but instead only issue orders by phone" to nurses.

"Other bird flu-designated hospitals in other regions... try hard to save their patients because they have a team of specialized doctors working together," he said.

Animal husbandry officials also said Tuesday that H5N1 had spread in poultry to Indonesia´s remote Papua province, which borders Papua New Guinea.

The Timika district animal husbandry office has since slaughtered hundreds of chickens, sprayed disinfectant and banned the transport of poultry out of the affected area.

The virus has already been detected in 27 other provinces out of 33 in the Indonesian archipelago.