Bird flu claims 13th victim

A seven-year-old boy has become the latest victim to die from the bird flu virus sweeping Asia.

The boy died in Thailand and is the country's fourth confirmed death from the disease that has killed 13 people.

Officials said the dead boy's twin brother, who had been in hospital briefly as a suspected victim of the avian influenza, did not have the illness.

Meanwhile, health officials in Indonesia have confirmed they have found the most dangerous strain of the disease, H5N1, in birds, but no humans there have fallen ill with it.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation is hosting a three-day conference of international experts in Rome on how to tackle the virus.

It is feared the flu could mutate into a more dangerous strain that could pass from human to human.

Concerns were raised after two sisters died from the disease in Vietnam after apparently contracting it from their brother.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said this was an anomaly rather than proof the disease was capable of being transmitted between people. The brother died from an unexplained disease, initially thought to have been bird flu. "Things are still in the box. It has not come out. If we sit on the lid it will stay there," said Klaus Stoehr, head of the WHO's global influenza programme.

However, experts are particularly worried that the disease may mix with human flu virus and cause a deadly flu pandemic.

The virus has killed millions of birds in 10 Asian countries and the WHO has now called for a "strong collaborative effort" to control the disease.

As well as the four victims in Thailand, nine people have died from the flu in Vietnam.