HANOI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Three Vietnamese people have been hospitalized for being suspected of having contracted bird flu, local newspaper Labor reported Thursday.

    Specimens of the people, admitted to the Tropical Disease Hospital in Hanoi capital on June 5, are being tested for bird flu virus strain H5N1, the paper quoted the hospital director Nguyen Duc Hien as saying.

    The testing results will come out in two or three days, he said, noting that the people are being isolated.

    Vietnam and China have recently coordinated on conducting a rehearsal on preventing bird flu outbreaks among humans along border areas, as the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned risk of a worldwide bird flu pandemic with mutated H5N1, said Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Medicine Department under the Vietnamese Health Ministry.

    Since late May, Vietnam has confirmed two local men, one from northern Thai Nguyen province and other from northern Vinh Phuc province, as the two latest cases of bird flu infections in the country since mid-November 2005.

    Vietnam has reported a total of 95 human cases of bird flu infections, including 42 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003. However, the WHO has yet to confirm the two latest cases.