JAKARTA, 29 January 2006 - A market vendor in Jakarta, who had a history of contact with sick poultry, died of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu Thursday. Officials at Jakarta's Infectious Diseases Hospital said local tests for the 22-year-old indicate he had the virus. If blood and swab samples sent to a World Health Organisation-approved laboratory in Hong Kong come back positive, Indonesia will raise its human death toll to 15.

A team of WHO officials toured markets in densely congested neighborhoods of the capital to stress the need for improved sanitation and hygiene. Alexander von Hildebrand, WHO Regional adviser, says more awareness about potential transmission of the disease needs to be raised. "We have noted that the awareness of potential transmission is not really there yet. In the sense that for instance, some of the sellers are keeping chickens very close to ducks. Which can be a problem because ducks do not show the disease but can carry it and transmit it."

Hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks have died or been culled since the H5N1 strain of the bird flu started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. The disease has also jumped to humans, killing at least 83 people in Asia and in Turkey.

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