Woman dies of bird flu, lifting Indonesia's toll to 102

A woman from Indonesia's bustling capital died of bird flu, lifting the toll in the country hardest hit by the disease to 102, a Health Ministry official said Friday. The 31-year-old woman died in the hospital late Thursday, two weeks after she became sick, said Ningrum of the ministry's bird flu center. Like many Indonesians he goes by only one name. Indonesia has regularly tallied human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. Almost all cases have originated from sick poultry, but experts fear the virus may mutate into a strain that can pass more easily from person to person, possibly infecting millions around the world.