A local doctor at a hospital in Vietnam´s Hanoi capital has been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5, making the total number of bird flu patient in the country to 62 since mid-December 2004.

    A male doctor from the Institute of Tropical Diseases, who has ever taken specimens from bird flu patients for testing, is infected with H5N1, but now he is in normal health condition, local daily Young People Friday quoted the hospital´s officials as saying.

    The institute is treating a total of 23 local people with bird flu symptoms, of whom 11 have been confirmed to have contracted bird flu virus strain H5N1 by the hospital´s officials, said the paper. The bird flu patients, all from northern localities, are instable health condition.

    Last week, Vietnam´s Preventive Medicine Department confirmed 55 human cases of bird flu infections, including 18 fatality ones detected between mid-December 2004 and early June 2005.

    Since then, six more have been found to have contracted the disease