HANOI, March 1 (Xinhuanet) -- A 35-year-old woman from Vietnam's Hanoi capital, who has been hospitalized since Feb. 24, has just been confirmed to contract bird flu virus strain H5N1, raising thetotal infections in the country since December 2004 to 21.

    Samples from the woman named Pham Thi Hoa, who is under treatment at the capital's Tropical Disease Institute, were tested positive to H5N1, according to sources from Vietnam's National Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute (NHEI), which tests samples from suspected cases of bird flu infection from the northern region, on Tuesday.

    Hoa, who works as a rubbish collector in the city, has frequently been present in live poultry markets, a doctor from theTropical Disease Institute said, noting that she has neither eatenpoultry meat nor lived in bird flu-hit areas since mid-February.

    In the most recent outbreak starting from late December 2004, Vietnam has detected 21 local people to contract H5N1. Vietnam's Health Ministry said that 12 local people and a Cambodian woman have died of the disease in Vietnam since then.

    Local newspaper Pioneer, however, reported two more H5N1-related deaths on Tuesday. The two fatality cases over the past week include a 69-year-old man named Nguyen Khac Teo from northernThai Binh province, and a young man named Nguyen Sy Tuan also fromthe province.

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