Indonesian woman dies of bird flu: health official

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, taking the country's death toll from the disease to 90, an official at the health ministry's bird flu centre said on Monday.

Suharda Ningrum said it was not yet clear whether the 30-year-old victim had been in contact with sick fowl, but chickens belonging to a neighbor had died suddenly. The woman lived in Tangerang, west of the capital Jakarta.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way for humans to contract the H5N1 strain of the virus.

"Two tests were confirmed positive for bird flu. Her neighbor's chickens died suddenly but it is unclear whether she had direct contact with the dead fowl," said Ningrum, adding that the woman had died in Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital.

Indonesia, which has now had 112 confirmed cases of the disease in humans, has suffered more fatalities than any other country.

Bird flu is endemic in bird populations in most parts of Indonesia, where millions of backyard chickens live in close proximity with humans.

Including the latest case, there have been 205 deaths and 334 cases globally since 2003, according to World Health Organization data.

Experts fear if an easy means of transmission from human to human develops, there might be a pandemic affecting millions.