A 27-year-old woman from Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province is infected with bird flu virus strain H5N1, a local doctor told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"According to the testing in the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi capital on Sunday, specimens from a woman named Nguyen Thi Ngu from Ky Phong district were positive toH5N1," the doctor from Ha Tinh General Hospital said on the condition of anonymity.

The woman was admitted to the provincial hospital with symptoms of fever and headache on March 29, seven days after killing and eating ducks, the doctor said, adding that she is now in a stable health condition without respiratory assistance.

On Monday, a 12-year-old child from northern Hai Phong city, who lives near a poultry slaughterhouse, was admitted to the Viet-Tiep hospital in the city for being suspected to contract bird flu. Meanwhile, a five-year-old bird flu patient named Hoang Trong Duong from central Quang Tri province was discharged from hospital.

Vietnam's Health Ministry, last week, confirmed 33 human cases of bird flu infection in the country since mid-December 2004, of whom 15 died.

On April 1, Vietnam started a month-long campaign to clean up farms and try to wipe out bird flu which has stricken 35 cities and provinces since January. Thirty-three localities have seen no new outbreaks in their territory for three weeks, meeting the criteria to announce an end to the disease. The two remaining provinces are Tra Vinh and Ben Tre in the southern region.

Source: Xinhua