Indonesian woman dies from bird flu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian woman who bought a live chicken from a market died from bird flu on Christmas Day, the Health Ministry bird flu centre said on Wednesday, taking the total number of deaths from the disease in Indonesia to 94.

The 24-year-old woman from Jakarta who died on Tuesday morning had tested positive for bird flu after being treated for several days in a hospital, said an official at the centre.

"The woman bought a live chicken in the market and slaughtered the chicken there before taking it home. But we're still investigating the cause," the official said.

Indonesia has had the world's highest number of human deaths from bird flu.

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

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from person to person, killing millions of people worldwide.

(Reporting by Fitri Wulandari; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Jerry Norton)