Laos may have second human bird flu case

BANGKOK, March 4 (Reuters) Laos may have a second human case of bird flu after a 42-year-old women fell sick in a province near Vientiane, a senior official today said.

''She is now in hospital and an initial lab test shows she has H5, but we are not sure whether it is N1 type,'' senior Public Health Department Bounlay Phommasack said by telephone.

The woman, who fell ill on February. 26, was believed to have been in touch with chickens infected with the H5N1 virus in her village, 60 km from Vientiane, Bounlay said.

That came nearly two weeks after landlocked Laos had confirm its first human case of bird flu, a 15-year-old girl living in the suburb of Vientiane where the virus was found in poultry in January.

Bird flu first broke out in Laos in January 2004 in Vientiane and nearby provinces.

The virus has infected at least 275 people in 12 countries since 2003 and killed at least 167 of them in 10 countries, the World Health Organisation says.

Public health experts fear it could mutate into a form that people catch easily from one another, possibly sparking a pandemic.

REUTERS SHB PM1448