A chicken stands on the bench of a small roadside chicken soup stand in Jakarta

Health officials in Indonesia are awaiting tests results on the latest patient suspected of contracting bird flu.

If samples sent to a Hong Kong laboratory prove positive, the officials say the four-year-old boy from Sumatra's Lampung province would be the sixth person in Indonesia to contract the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The virus has killed three people in Indonesia since July. Since 2003 it has killed about 60 people in Asia and millions of birds.

Indonesian officials say that so far, all patients appear to have contracted the virus directly from birds. Health officials have warned of dire consequences if the virus begins spreading quickly among humans.