Nigeria is testing one woman who died last week and two kids to find out whether they are the first human cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in Africa, a World Health Organization official told Xinhua Wednesday.

"The old woman, 67, in Kano (northern Nigeria) died last week after developing respiratory problems. But we are lucky to take some blood from her before she died," said Mohammed Belhocine, the World Health Organization's representative in Nigeria by telephone.

Belhocine said two kids from a chicken farm in the northern state of Kaduna, where Africa's first bird flu cases were detected, were also being tested although Nigerian health officials had already ruled them out as bird flu victims after they recovered. "Our team is in the field to identify and take some samples ... We want to make sure," he said.

Belhocine also said a lady in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial city, who was reported to have developed flu-like symptoms, has tested negative to the avian group antigen.

Nigeria is the first country on the African continent to report an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus which has claimed at least 92 lives, mostly in Asia, since 1997.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned on Wednesday the bird flu continues to spread in Nigeria and could cause "a regional disaster."

Source: Xinhua