Thai Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said Thursday that a 12-years-old boy in Chaiyaphum province had been confirmed by lab test as human bird flu infection case.

Sudarat said that the boy's father is a chicken farmer, that his chicken began to die since from Jan. 17 and that the boy was sent to hospital on Jan. 21 for cold and was receiving treatment in Chaiyaphum Hospital.

She said the lab test had detected that the boy had been infected by the fatal bird flu which had killed at least five persons in the Kingdom and that the ministry had sent a special team led by Charal Trinwuthipong, director-general of the Disease Control Department, to join the treatment.

Since the Thai government admitted that the country was affected by bird flu on Jan. 23, 40 of the country's 76 provinces have been declared bird flu control zones successively.

The case of the boy has raised the number of Thailand's human bird flu cases to six, with five of them having died so far.

Sudarat also said that there were 21 patients still on the list of suspected bird flu infection patients, and that 12 suspected patients had died so far.

The Thai government on Feb. 8 announced that after more than 25million poultry were slaughtered, there was only one district of Bangkok that was still on the list of control zones. The country will declare bird flu-free country after finding no infection casein a 21-day surveillance period.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2004)