HANOI, March 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A 68-year-old widow from Vietnam's northern Thai Binh province, wife of a bird flu patient, has just been confirmed to contract the bird flu virus H5N1, raising the total infections in the country since late December 2004 to 24, local health official told Xinhua on Wednesday.

    "According to testing by the National Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute today, specimens from the woman named Luong Thi Thiem from Kien Xuong district were tested positive to H5N1. She slaughtered a chicken for meal on the third day of the Lunar New Year Festival (early February)," said Pham Gia Lai, deputy director of the Thai Binh Health Department.

    Thiem, who is now in good health condition in her hometown, will receive treatment with an anti-viral medicine branded Tamiflu, he said.

    The woman's 69-year-old husband named Pham Khac Teo developed bird flu symptoms on Feb. 19, was admitted to the Thai Binh Hospital on the same day, and died on Feb. 23. Testing by the institute in the capital city of Hanoi indicated that he was a bird flu victim. Enditem