The Thai Department of Disease Control announced on Thursday that laboratory test results had confirmed Thailand's 13th bird flu patient from Kanchanaburi Province--about 110 km west of Bangkok.

Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of the Department of Disease Control said that the patient, Mr. Bang-orn Benpad, was admitted to hospital on Oct. 17 and died on Wednesday, becoming Thailand's 13th death from avian flu since the outbreak emerged in 2003.

His death is the first fatality in the third round of the bird flu outbreak in the country, Thawat was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying.

According to the news agency report, Bang-orn and his seven- year-old son had contacted with sick chickens and his son is now being treated at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

Phanom district, where Mr. Bang-orn lived, is an at-risk area under close surveillance, Thawat said. The Department of Livestock Development earlier culled a number of chickens there to contain the disease.

The World Health Organization reported 117 bird flu patients from Oct. 26, 2003 to Oct. 10, 2005. There were 60 fatalities in four countries, including 41 deaths in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand, four in Cambodia, and three in Indonesia.

Source: Xinhua