Bird flu kills Thai boy of five

The boy's family were said to tend chickens

A five-year-old Thai boy has died from bird flu, health officials have said.

"We can confirm that he died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu," said Thawat Suntrajarn, head of the Department of Communicable Disease Control.

Doctors said the boy's family raised chickens, but did not go to hospital for nine days after he became ill.

The boy is the 14th person to die from bird flu in Thailand, out of 22 who have contracted the disease. The virus has killed about 70 people in Asia.

The boy was from the central province of Nakhon Nayok, north-east of Bangkok.

Baby recovered

Scores of people and thousands of fowl have died of bird flu since 2003, and there are fears of a pandemic if the virus mutates to pass between humans.

So far, all the humans killed are believed to have contracted the virus through contact with infected birds.

Last month a one-year-old Thai boy was diagnosed with the lethal H5N1 strain, but recovered.

The Thai government has announced that it will start manufacturing a generic version of the drug Tamiflu, which is widely believed to help reduce bird flu symptoms in humans.

The last victim of bird flu is thought to have been an Indonesian woman who died last week.

Earlier this week officials said a 10-year-old Chinese girl had been diagnosed with H5N1.