A 23-year-old man in West Sumatra was confirmed by the World Health Organization's (WHO) laboratory in Hong Kong as contaminated with bird flu, thus increasing the number of human contamination cases in Indonesia up to 33, Health Ministry official told Xinhua in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The man, now hospitalized in West Sumatra, had been working at animal husbandry and contacted with birds once before, said senior ministry official Hariadi Wibisono.

The WHO has confirmed 24 deaths out of 33 Indonesians contracted by avian influenza virus.

Bird flu has now killed more than 90 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003 and scientists feared the virus could mutate and spread easily from human to human, which could trigger pandemic.

Source: Xinhua