A 28-year old woman, who died on Wednesday in Central Jakarta, was confirmed of having avian influenza, putting the death toll to 71 out of 91 cases, the country's Health Ministry said in Jakarta on Thursday.

"Both of laboratory tests showed that she is positive of bird flu," Joko Sugiyono an official of the anti-bird flu center of the ministry told Xinhua.

The woman began to sick on Wednesday last week and died before down Wednesday at Gatot Subroto Hospital here, he said.

She was first admitted at Islam Hospital in East Jakarta at the time she was sick and then the woman was shifted to Gatot Subroto Hospital on March 24, said the official.

It was not clear whether she had historical contacts with fowls, said another official of the center Haris Subiantoro.

The number of bird flu cases in Indonesia has increased recently after months of absence of new cases.

The country has agreed to cooperate by sharing its bid flu virus sample with the World Health Organization for scientific purpose.

Indonesian health authorities have imposed a firm policy separating fowls from human and surveillance on the viruses.

The authorities forbid raising fowls in residential areas.

But the implementation of the policy seem does not work, as the authorities in the most of 32 provinces in the country have failed to put it into effect, Indonesian Health Ministry Siti Fadilah Sufari told Xinhua.

Over 32 million families in Indonesia's vast archipelago have raising chickens on back yard, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono has said.

Experts have warned international community of the risks of the disease should Indonesia fail to prevent the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus from spreading.

Millions of people can be killed should the highly pathogenic H5N1 mutate into a certain level, which can make it transmittable among humans.

The huge territory, back-yard centered farming and relatively lack budget have hampered the authorities in the country to fighting avian influenza.

Asia has been hit, the hardest, with 139 out the 155 human deaths arising from bird flu since 2003 occurring in East Asia countries, according to the data from the World Bank.

Source: Xinhua