(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-20 13:40

An 18-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam, taking the death toll from the disease in the communist nation to six in the past three weeks, with the virus spread to one third of its provinces.

"The 18-year-old woman from Tien Giang province was the sixth H5N1 victim," ministry spokesman Tran Duc Long told AFP. She died on Wednesday, 13 days after being admitted in Ho Chi Minh City's Hospital of Tropical diseases.

A Vietnamese duck farm. An 18-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam, taking the death toll from the disease in the nation to six in the past three weeks, the ministry of health said. [AFP]

All six deaths were in southern Vietnam and the victims had all been in close contact with poultry, officials said.

The latest deaths take to at least 26 people the number of people on record as having died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Vietnam since the end of 2003. Another 12 have died in Thailand.

The real number of deaths is thought to be higher as tests were not carried out on some suspected cases.

Roasted chickens and ducks are displayed for sale at a market in Hanoi January 20, 2005. An 18-year-old girl has died of bird flu in southern Vietnam and the first confirmed human infection in the country's north has raised concerns about possible human-to-human transmission of the virus. [Reuters]

Bird flu is now reported in one third of Vietnam's territory, or 21 out of 64 provinces and cities, with the culling of more than 331,000 poultry since the start of the year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Meanwhile, the first suspected H5N1 case in the northern part of the country was reported in the capital Hanoi.

The case involved a 42-year-old man whose 45-year-old brother died of respiratory illness on January 9. Results of a final test to confirm what the man was suffering from were due Thursday, the health ministry's spokesman said.

The World Health Organisation said it was waiting for confirmation from Vietnam's health authorities.

"Vietnamese authorities are rechecking all the test results," WHO epidemiologist, Peter Horby, told AFP.

"They are undertaking investigation on possible sources of infection," he added.

The organisation was discussing with Vietnamese authorities the possibility of obtaining samples and sending them to WHO laboratories abroad.

"The government has criticised local authorities who have not applied appropriate measures to prevent the disease from spreading," Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was quoted as saying in the daily Lao Dong newspaper Thursday.

Last year Vietnam was criticised for its slow response to the epidemic; this year the government seems to have been speedier in taking action, yet without being able to contain the disease.

Experts have repeatedly said it would take years to eradicate the virus.