GENEVA, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Health Organization (WHO)said Tuesday that it has received informal reports of a laboratory-confirmed fatal case of influenza A H5 infection in Vietnam.

    The patient is thought to be a child who was hospitalized in Hanoi and died over the weekend, and further details are awaited from official sources, the Geneva-based organization said in a statement.

    Detection of an H5 subtype of influenza A in a human should always arouse a very high level of suspicion that the case was caused by the H5N1 strain of bird flu, particularly in a country with ongoing outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry.

    H5N1 is the only strain within the H5 subtype that has ever been shown to cause disease in humans.

    Since August, Vietnam has detected four human cases of H5 infection. These cases have occurred amidst recurring H5N1 outbreaks in poultry in several Asian countries, according to WHO.

    Since January of this year, altogether 39 human cases have been reported from Vietnam and Thailand.

    news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-09/08/content_1953219.htm