JAKARTA - THE death toll from bird flu in Indonesia has risen to 112 after a 19-year-old man died from the virus last week, a health ministry official said on Monday.

Contagious Diseases section chief section I Nyoman Kandun confirmed that the man had died in hospital in the Jakarta satellite city of Tangerang.

He said 112 people had died in Indonesia, the country worst-hit by the virus, out of 137 positive cases.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari earlier this year closed a 24-hour information centre on bird flu outbreaks and stopped providing regular updates of the death toll, saying it was unnecessary.

Experts fear that the virus, which is usually spread directly from a bird to a human, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic. -- AFP