The Health Ministry of Thailand said Saturday that a patient living in Nakhon Ratchasima province, 300 kilometers from Bangkok, had been added to the list of suspected bird flu patients, the state-run radio reported.

Including this patient, the number of suspected human infections has risen to 21. Twelve of them have been cured while seven died and two others are still hospitalized.

Deputy Permanent Secretary for Public Health Ministry Thawat Suntrajarn said the 29-year-old patient was a farmer who bred fighting chickens. When his chickens died early this month, he buried the chickens himself, and then fell in illness from Feb. 13.

The patient was sent to a provincial hospital on Feb. 16, the doctor detected that he could have been infected by flu virus. His blood sample has been sent to Bangkok for test.

According to the Thai government, the Kingdom began to be affected by the bird flu on Jan. 23. Then it declared 40 provinces of the total 76 provinces as bird flu control zones successively.

After over 35 million poultry population was slaughtered, the spread of the fatal virus has been controlled, but 14 persons, including seven confirmed infections and seven suspected patients, have been killed so far, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 29, 2004)