A fifth person has died from bird flu in Thailand, the health minister said in Bangkok today.

Two more bird flu deaths in people – one announced in Vietnam and one in Thailand – brought the death toll from the disease to 12 today, and China said it suspected the virus had reached poultry in one of its remotest regions.

A third person has died from bird flu in Thailand, the public health minister said today, after the disease claimed the lives of two local children last week.

Thailand’s prime minister said today that lab test results would “most likely” show that the country is facing an outbreak of bird flu, after days of official denials that the disease had devastated local poultry farms.