JAKARTA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has recorded 85 bird flu cases, after a 20-year old woman was positively infected by avian influenza, the country's Health Ministry said here on Monday.

    The woman from East Java province had history contact with chicken, an anti-bird flu official of the ministry, Joko Sugiyono,said.

    "She was positive of bird flu," he told Xinhua.

    "The woman cleaned a spot where her neighbors throw some dead chickens," said Sugiyono.

    The woman was hospitalized in the Mojokerto regency hospital ofthe province on February 28, and on March 8 she was shifted to a hospital in Surabaya, the capital city of the province.

    Indonesia has recorded 64 fatality out of 85 contracted people from the disease, he said.

    The number of bird flu cases in the country has increased recently after months of absence of new cases.

    Indonesian health authorities have imposed a firm policy separating fowls from human and surveillance on the viruses, the official said, adding the authorities forbid raising fowls in residential areas.

    Over 32 million families in Indonesia's vast archipelago have been raising chickens in back yard, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono has said.