Bird flu death toll rises to five with the death of an Indonesian woman in October, reports Reuters. Hariadi Wibisono, a senior Health Ministry official, says that the woman's nephew has also tested positive for the disease.

The number of confirmed Indonesian cases has now gone up to nine. The boy is now being treated in a Jakarta hospital. The tests have been carried out by a Hong Kong laboratory. However, Wibisono rules out the notion that he virus has mutated and infected one to the other, as the woman and the boy used to live in the same house.

"No, we cannot confirm that. Both of them got ill because of dead chickens at their house ... But we are still investigating these cases," Reuters quoted him as saying. The boy infected with the disease is "is in a good condition".

The H5N1 virus has infected at least 123 people in Asia and killed 63.