JAKARTA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A 8-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu on Friday, putting the total fatalities to 97 out of 119 cases in the hardest-hit country, the health ministry said.

    The boy from Tangerang, an outskirt city of Jakarta, was admitted to bird flu-designed hospital of Persahabatan in East Jakarta on Thursday after he had symptoms of fever and cough since Jan. 7, an official of bird flu center of the ministry Sunan Raja said.

    "His condition was very poor when admitted to Jakarta and died on 4:00 a.m. today," Raja told Xinhua.

    All laboratories tests had indicated that the boy was positively contracted by the H5N1 virus, Raja said.

    A fowl slaughter point which locates just meters away from the victim"e;s home may be the cause of infection, experts analyzed.

    Indonesia, the world"e;s fourth most populous country and home to millions of backyard chickens, is considered a possible hot spot for spreading the bird flu disease. By Jan. 18, it has reported three bird flu death case in 2008.