Indonesian Woman Dies of Bird Flu, Raising National Toll to 102

Indonesia's health ministry says a 31-year-old woman has died of bird flu, raising the national death toll from the disease to 102.

Officials say the woman died late Thursday, at a Jakarta hospital. She is at least the seventh person to die this year from the disease.

They say the woman was from Tangerang, a city outside of Jakarta, and that she lived in a neighborhood with backyard farms and near a traditional market that sells poultry.

Most cases in Indonesia involve contact with infected poultry.

Bird flu has killed more people in Indonesia than any other country since it began spreading in Southeast Asia in late 2003.

The World Health Organization says 224 people around the world have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu since 2003.

Health experts fear it will mutate into a form that could be easily spread among humans, triggering a global pandemic.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.