Local tests show that an 8-year- old boy in Indonesia has died of avian influenza, bringing the total death from the virus to 11, Health Ministry official said here Monday.

Director at the ministry Hariadi Wibisono told Xinhua in telephone that it was not clear if the boy, who died last week in a dense residential area of the capital Jakarta, had contacted with sick birds.

"The local tests show he was positive for bird flu," Wibisono said.

The death puts the total people contracted by the virus to 16 as four of them survive.

The World Health Organization's affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong has confirmed nine deaths and five survive from the disease.

Indonesia is waiting the result of two blood samples from the laboratory in Hong Kong.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, which killed nearly 70 people.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, just like human influenza. If it does, millions could die because they would have no immunity.

Source: Xinhua