A Vietnamese couple and their three children have been infected by Asia丩s bird flu in the latest human cases of the deadly virus which has killed 49 people since the end of 2003, state media reported on Tuesday.

The five, from a district where bird flu had killed poultry, were sent to hospital in the northern port of Haiphong last week suffering fevers and breathing problems.

Preliminary tests on the 39-year-old man, his wife and their three daughters -- aged between four months and 10 years -- confirmed they had the deadly H5N1 variant of the virus, the Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Doctors and officials could not be reached for comment, but the newspaper said the family had eaten sick chickens after more than half of their 400 birds died earlier this month.

Bird flu swept across the region in early 2003 has killed 35 people in Vietnam, 13 of them since late December when the disease broke out anew in the southern Mekong Delta. It has spread to more than one third of Vietnam丩s 64 provinces.

The virus, which has also claimed 12 Thais and two Cambodians, has killed about 70 percent of the people known to have been infected, but it does not pass easily from bird to humans and eating infected fowl cooked properly is not dangerous.

Experts fear that if the virus could mutate into a more contagious form and jump between humans, it could unlash a global pandemic of killer flu and that millions could die.

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   HANOI, March 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A five-person family from Vietnam´s northern Hai Phong city have been infected with bird flu virus strain H5N1, local newspaper Labor reported Tuesday.

    According to initial testing by the Vietnam´s National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology, specimens from the five patients, including a 39-year-old man named Vu Van Son, his wife and three children from Kien Thuy rural district, have been tested positive to the virus. They were admitted to the city-based Viet-Tiep Hospital on March 22 after having cough, fever and breathing difficulty.

    The parents and their daughters aged 4 months old, 3 years old and 10 years old are now in stable health condition. Before exhibiting bird flu symptoms, they ate sick chicken raised by themselves.

    The family, who live in a bird flu-hit area, have their flock of nearly 200 chickens recently culled by local veterinarians. Earlier, over 200 chickens of the flock died.

    Several days after admitting the five patients, the hospital received two suspected cases of bird flu infections: a 41-year-oldman and a child. All the seven patients live in the same commune.

    On March 23, the Hue Central Hospital in central Hue city received a suspected case of H5N1 infection. The 30-year-old patient named Cao Lu Uy comes from the neighboring province of Quang Tri. The patient has not had contact with sick poultry, said the report.

    Last week, Vietnam´s Health Ministry confirmed that 28 local people have been infected with H5N1 since late December 2004, of whom 14 have died.

    Bird flu has hit 35 Vietnamese cities and provinces since January. Twenty-seven localities have detected no new affected spots for three weeks, meeting criteria to announce an end to the disease. The eight remaining localities include Ben Tre, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, Tra Vinh and Vinh Long in the southern region, and Hai Phong and Hai Duong in the northern region.