Vietnam confirmed Thursday that an 18-year-old woman was killed by bird flu and state-run media reported the infection of another 35-year-old as health officials scrambled to contain the virus in the country's south. 

A doctor at Ho Chi Minh City's Pasteur Institute said tests found that the woman, from the southern province of Hau Giang but who died in nearby Can Tho City on Monday, was infected with the deadly strain known as H5N1.

This is the fourth bird flu death confirmed by Vietnamese doctors and Vietnam's 24th victim in the past two weeks since the country was struck by renewed bird flu outbreaks that began in early December.

Health officials declined comment on a report by yesterday's daily Liberation Saigon that quoted health officials saying the virus also killed an 18-year-old woman from the southern province of Tien Giang after she was hospitalized the previous week.

Bird flu has killed at least 36 people across Asia and has laid waste to the poultry industry in a number of countries as thousands of birds were slaughtered to prevent further spread of the disease. Malaysia, however, has declared itself free of the disease and Thailand has had no new cases since November.

(China Daily January 14, 2005)