Indonesia's human bird flu death toll climbs to 12
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-14 09:38

The number of people killed by bird flu in Indonesia has climbed to 12, a World Health Organization official said.

Tests sent to a Hong Kong laboratory for a 29-year-old woman who died earlier this week came back positive late Friday, said WHO spokeswoman Sari Setiogi.

The agency was still awaiting results for a 39-year-old man who died recently, she said, but local tests indicated he too had the deadly H5N1 virus.

Bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks since it started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, and has jumped to humans, killing at least 78 people, according to WHO's official tally.

Christine McNab, a spokeswoman at WHO's headquarters in Geneva, said the most recent Indonesian deaths would be added only after the agency received confirmation from the country's Health Ministry.

Cases have recently been recorded in Turkey.

Most human cases of the disease, including Indonesia's latest deaths, have been traced to contact with infected birds.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between people, possibly sparking a pandemic.