Officials have begun slaughtering chickens in Bangladesh's capital, as bird flu spreads to at least 42 of the country's 64 districts.
Livestock officials say workers started killing more than 100-thousand poultry in Dhaka Saturday to prevent the spread of the virus.More than 600,000 chickens have been slaughtered since bird flu was first detected in Bangladesh in March of 2007. No human cases have been detected in the country so far.
The World Health Organization says 227 people around the world have died from bird flu since 2003. Health experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that could be easily spread among humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities say a 16-year-old boy who died last week had bird flu.
The health ministry said on its Web site Saturday that tests had confirmed the victim had been infected with the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. The ministry said the boy died in a hospital in the central Java city of Solo February 10, after suffering a fever, breathing difficulties and coughing for a week.
The latest death brings Indonesia's death toll from the illness to 104.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.