JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 32-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia"e;s capital, lifting the toll in the country hardest hit by the virus to 101.

One of the victim"e;s neighbors was a pigeon breeder, but it was not immediately clear if that was the source of infection, said Health Ministry official Toto Haryanto.

"We"e;re still investigating," he said. "We are not sure if any of those birds was sickened by the H5N1 virus."

The man, who came from the nearby industrial city of Tangerang, died Tuesday after being treated for three days at Persahabatan Hospital in east Jakarta, said Dr. Erna Tresnaningsih, another senior ministry official.

Indonesia has regularly tallied human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. The latest casualty comes days after the country"e;s toll climbed to 100 — accounting for nearly half the worldwide total of more than 220.

As of Wednesday, 101 Indonesians had died and 23 others had been infected but recovered.

Almost all cases have originated from sick poultry, but experts fear the virus may mutate into a strain that can pass more easily from person to person, possibly infecting millions around the world. Indonesia is considered a potential hotspot for that to happen because of its high density of people and backyard chickens.