A 15-year-old boy from Vietnam's central Thanh Hoa Province has just been confirmed to have contracted H5N1, bringing the total number of bird flu victims in the country to 20, the country's Ministry of Health announced on Monday afternoon.

The boy named Nguyen Gia Tam from the province's Thanh Hoa city was admitted to the Thanh Hoa Hospital on Feb. 10, one day after he showed symptoms of cough, fever and breathing difficulty.

Doctors at the provincial hospital have yet to know exactly why the boy was infected with the virus, since neither he contacted to poultry nor his family raised fowls.

As of Monday afternoon, 14 local people, who came from five localities in the north and six others in the south, died of bird flu, the ministry said.

The ministry reported 231 people, including 151 in the north and 80 in the south to be flu type A infections and suspects as of Monday afternoon. Of them, 121 were discharged from hospitals, 36 died and 74 were under treatment.

By Monday afternoon, 2,566 communes of 57 cities and provinces nationwide were stricken by bird flu which has killed and led to the forced killing of nearly 37.7 million fowls, or 14.8 percent of Vietnam's poultry population.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2004)