Bird Flu Deaths Are Reported by China, Indonesia

Health authorities in China and Indonesia on Friday each reported a woman killed by a deadly strain of bird flu. Azerbaijan became the latest country to report an outbreak among fowl, and Nigeria said the virus had spread there too.

If the death in Indonesia is confirmed by the World Health Organization, it would be the country’s 17th.

The Chinese death would be the eighth there, if confirmed.

China on Wednesday reported a woman had died of the H5N1 strain in an area with no reported outbreaks in poultry.

Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry said a British laboratory had confirmed the H5N1 strain in wild ducks and swans found on the Absheron Peninsula, which juts into the Caspian Sea and includes the capital, Baku.

Authorities asked residents to avoid contact with fowl and to isolate domestic poultry from wild birds.

Part of the former Soviet nation shares a short border with eastern Turkey, where four children died after becoming infected with bird flu.

International experts pressed Nigeria -- which reported Africa’s first outbreak on Wednesday -- to do more to combat the disease, and a top agriculture official said the virus had been reported on a total of five farms in the north of the country. No human infections have been reported.