Thai Health Ministry announced Wednesday evening that a 6-year-old boy who had died in Kanchanaburi Province, 130 kilometers west from Bangkok, was confirmed as a patient infected by bird flu. 

Thai Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said Nithikorn Chidnok, the 5th victim of the fatal bird flu virus, died on Tuesday and the lab test testified that his pathogeny is H5N1 virus.

The boy added the number of Thailand's bird flu death cases to five, and all of the five confirmed patients infected by the fatal virus have died.

Sudarat also said that there were 17 patients still at list of suspected bird flu infection patients, 12 suspected patients had died so far.

Since from Thai government admitted that the country affected by the bird flu on Jan. 23, more than 25 million chickens in 37 provinces of the country's 76 provinces have been slaughtered.

According to the rule of Thai government, as part of the government's efforts to control the outbreak of the disease, chickens must be culled within a 5-kilometer radius of where the virus was found and chickens may not be moved outside a 50-kilometer radius.

Thailand's poultry industry, the world's fourth largest, has suffered from the bird flu outbreak. The European Union, Japan and other major markets have banned Thai chicken products.

Thailand exported about 500,000 tons of chicken worth 52 billion baht (US$1.3 billion) in 2003, but faces significant losses this year because of the crisis. Thai government said the outbreak would be controlled in February.

(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2004)