An 18-year-old girl from Vietnam´s southern Tien Giang has just been confirmed to have contracted bird flu, and another positive case has died of the disease, local newspaper Youth reported Monday.

    Testing by the Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City showed that the girl from Cai Lay district, who was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 6, showed that samples from the patient, who lives in an area suffering bird flu-infected fowls, were positive to bird flu virus H5N1. Her health condition has been worsening.

    A 16-year-old girl from Duong Minh Chau district in southern Tay Ninh province, who was confirmed to have contracted H5N1 and treated by the hospital, died on Jan. 8 after two weeks of treatment. She slaughtered sick chickens for meals.

    Now, the hospital is treating suspected case of bird flu infection from Tien Giang´s Chau Thanh district. Since late December 2004, the hospital has reported four cases of H5N1 infections.

    Among the fatality cases, a nine-year old boy from southern TraVinh province died Jan. 4, and a six-year-old boy in southern DongThap province died Dec. 30. All of them had direct or indirect contact with sick poultry.

    On Jan. 7, Vietnam´s Ministry of Health officially announced the country had detected three human cases of H5N1 infections since Dec. 16, 2004. They were from Tay Ninh, Dong Thap and Tra Vinh provinces.

    In late March 2004, Vietnam declared an end to the bird flu that killed 17 percent of its poultry population and claimed 23 human lives during the previous outbreak starting in December 2003.A total of 43.2 million fowls nationwide either died or were culled, causing a total loss of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8million dollars) to the local poultry industry.