Man dies of bird flu, raising Indonesian death toll to 91

An Indonesian man died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 91, a top Health Ministry official said Saturday.

The 31-year-old died on Friday soon after arriving at a government hospital in Pekanbaru on Sumatra island, said Nyoman Kandun, the director general of communicable disease control at the Health Ministry.

Kandun said investigators were trying to determine the likely source of the virus.

Almost all human cases so far have been traced to contact with infected birds.

Indonesia has recorded regular deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.

Its 91 deaths now account for almost half of the recorded fatalities worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

The disease remains hard for people to catch, but health experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily between humans, potentially sparking a global pandemic.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation and home to millions of backyard chickens, is considered a potential location for such a pandemic to begin.