Laboratory tests have confirmed an additional case of H5N1 infection in Vietnam, a 15-year-old boy from Thanh Hoa province, the World Health Organization said in a statement posed on its website on Wednesday.

"He remains under treatment in Thanh Hoa Hospital... Altogether, 21 cases, 14 of them fatal, have been reported in Vietnam," said the statement.

On Monday, Vietnam's Ministry of Health announced that a 15-year old boy named Nguyen Gia Tam from the province's Thanh Hoa city, who exhibited flu symptoms on Feb. 9, has been infected withH5N1, raising the total number of bird flu cases to 20.

Of the 20 cases, 14 have died, one recovered and five remained hospitalized, it said.

Earlier, local media reported a total of 21 H5N1 infections. However, the media reduced the number to 20, explaining that one person tested negative to H5N1 in the second testing, not positive to the virus like in the first testing.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Vietnam reported a total of 248 flu type A infections and suspects in 31 localities, of whom 37 died, 122 were discharged from hospitals and 89 under treatment.

Meanwhile, 2,568 communes of 57 cities and provinces were hit by bird flu which led to the forced culling of 37.8 million fowls, or some 15 percent of the country's poultry population.

Local authorities expressed their belief that Vietnam will contain the outbreak by the end of this month as targeted, given that the number of new affected areas and fowls culled are falling.

Vietnam is working out concrete measures to recover its poultry population, such as protecting and multiplying the number of breeder fowls, and financially assisting the raisers.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2004)