HANOI, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- After detecting no human cases of bird flu infections for nearly four months, Vietnam's Health Ministry has confirmed that a four-year-old child from Vietnam's northern Son La province died in mid-December after contracting bird flu virus H5N1, local newspaper Youth reported Thursday.

    The little boy from Moc Chau district died on Dec. 16 after being admitted to the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi capital on Dec. 14. He was treated at a hospital in the district on Dec. 12 after showing signs of fever and pneumonia.

    The ministry said that there have been no announcements of bird flu outbreaks among fowls in Moc Chau, and that the boy ate a dead chicken. Some chickens raised by neighbors of his family have recently died.

    Before the latest human cases of bird flu infections, Vietnam had detected seven bird flu patients from the five northern provinces of Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Ha Nam and Ha Tay since May 10, of whom four died, according to the ministry's Preventive Medicine Department.