Bird flu has spread, China says

BEIJING — China on Thursday announced the spread of bird flu to a far western region, while Indonesia reported its first outbreak of the virus in the tsunami-ravaged Aceh province where hundreds of chickens have died from the disease.

The Nov. 17 outbreak in Turpan, a city in China's Xinjiang region, killed 11 birds and prompted the destruction of 5,180 more, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the Agriculture Ministry.

News of the outbreak — China's 21st in recent weeks — came a day after the country confirmed its second human death from bird flu.

A 35-year-old farmer identified only by her surname, Xu, died Tuesday after coming into contact with infected poultry and developing a fever and pneumonia-like symptoms, Xinhua said, citing the Health Ministry.

The woman, who lived in Xiuning County in the eastern province of Anhui, tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, Xinhua said.

The area is about 60 miles northwest of Zongyang County, where the country's first human bird flu death was reported — a 24-year-old poultry farmer who died Nov. 10.

China has confirmed one other human bird flu case, a 9-year-old boy who recovered.

Bird flu has killed more than 100 million birds in Asia since 2003, and has jumped to humans, killing at least 67 people in the region, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO figures did not include the latest death in China.

Experts have warned the virus may mutate into a form that is easily passed between people and trigger a global pandemic.

Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry said chickens have been infected with H5N1 in at least three districts in Aceh, where tens of thousands of survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami still live in crowded refugee camps.

Hundreds of chickens have died, said Sjamsul Bahri, the ministry's director of animal health. He said bird flu has now been found in 23 of Indonesia's 30 provinces. The virus has killed seven people in Indonesia.

In Vietnam, the country hit hardest by the disease, a 15-year-old boy from the northern port city of Haiphong tested positive for H5N1. He was hospitalized and expected to recover, said Nguyen Van Binh, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's Preventive Medicine Department.