Indonesian teenage girl dies of bird flu

JAKARTA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A 16-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu, taking the country's confirmed human death toll from the virus to 96, a health ministry official said on Tuesday.

The girl from Bekasi area east of Jakarta tested positive for bird flu last week, said the official at the Health Ministry's bird flu centre.

"One of the girl's neighbours owns a chicken farm. Tests by the agriculture ministry's bird flu centre show the chickens had bird flu," said the official, who declined to be identified.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia.

Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and kill millions.

A 32-year-old woman from Tangerang near Jakarta, who bought a live chicken and some eggs from a market, died of bird flu at her home last Thursday.

On Christmas day, a 24-year-old woman from Jakarta also died from the virus after buying a live chicken from a market.

Indonesia has had the most number of deaths from bird flu of any country. (Reporting by Fitri Wulandari, editing by Sugita Katyal)