Indonesian poultry seller ties his chickens, 01 Feb 2008

Indonesia's health ministry says a 29-year-old woman has died of bird flu, raising the death toll in the southeast Asian nation to 102.

Officials say the woman died on Saturday in a Jakarta hospital. She is at least the eighth person to die this year from the disease.

The woman visited her parents recently and officials say their neighbors kept chicks. It was unclear, however, whether the chickens were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Most bird flu cases in Indonesia involve contact with infected poultry.

Indonesian officials also announced Monday, that another woman in her late twenties was infected with the disease. She is currently being treated at a hospital in Jakarta.

Officials say the infected woman's neighbors keep poultry.

Indonesia has had the largest number of deaths and infections in the world since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.

The World Health Organization says 225 people around the world have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu since 2003.

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