Bird flu has killed two more Vietnamese, taking the country´s toll to 42, nearly half of them killed since the H5N1 virus returned in December, state-run media said on Friday.

A 26-year-old who died in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday tested positive for the H5 component of the deadly H5N1 virus, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported without disclosing the sex of the victim.

A 24-year-old man from the southern province of Tra Vinh died on Monday in a provincial hospital and tests showed he had the deadly H5N1 virus which has also killed 12 people in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia, it said.

Both had eaten sick chicken before falling ill.

Vietnam currently is the country worst hit by the virus which first swept across much of Asia in late 2003 and has become endemic in several areas despite the slaughter of tens of millions of fowl.

International health experts say the longer it takes to eradicate, the more likely the virus will mutate into a form which can pass easily between people, which now it cannot, and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die.