A 16-year-old Vietnamese girl battling bird flu over the past few weeks has died, the country's third casualty in the past 10 days from the disease that last year killed dozens. 

With Asia's death toll from the H5N1 bird flu strain now at 35, Vietnamese officials said another patient has been infected by the virus.

Le Truong Giang, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City's Health Department, said Monday the girl from the southern province of Tay Ninh died on Saturday in the city's hospital after fighting the virus since late last month.

He also said tests last week confirmed that an 18-year-old girl who was transferred last Thursday to the same hospital from the Mekong delta has also contracted the H5N1 strain.

"The Health Ministry will have the final say on the case but tests have shown positive bird flu results," he said.

The World Health Organization warned Vietnam may face new bird flu cases this month as poultry is moved around the country ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

The virus also becomes more active when temperatures cool, the WHO said.

The Agriculture Ministry said the 16-year-old girl from Tay Ninh developed high fever and coughing after having contact with dead chickens at her house, some of them bought from An Giang, a bird-flu hit Mekong delta province.

No outbreaks have been reported in Tay Ninh so far.

With the illness now endemic in poultry farms, experts fear it will only be a matter of time before the disease mutates into a form that can leap between humans and sweep through populations with no immunity. Pigs are seen as a likely next step.

Since early last month, nearly 58,000 poultry have been killed by authorities or have died from bird flu in Vietnam, mostly in the country's south.

State media yesterday said the H5N1 poultry virus was found last Saturday in the Mekong delta province of Kien Giang bordering Cambodia, with 2,500 birds culled, bringing to 15 provinces and cities now infected by the disease.

Dinh Cong Thuan, head of Kien Giang's animal health department, was quoted yesterday by Tuoi Tre newspaper as saying poultry smuggling from Cambodia has not been controlled.

While the poultry sector has been hard hit by bird flu, the impact on the country's feed industry could be limited since poultry accounts for only 30 percent of Vietnam's feed demand, while pork feed accounts for almost 60 percent, said Timothy Loh, marketing manager for Southeast Asia of the American Soybean Association.

Loh said Vietnam's commercial feed output in 2005 could rise by at least 12 percent to around 4.5 million tons, from about 4.1 million in 2004, unless bird flu cases rose sharply.

(China Daily January 11, 2005)