HANOI - A Vietnamese woman who slaughtered and processed sick poultry has died from bird flu, the first fatality from the avian influenza virus this year in Vietnam, the Health Ministry said.

The 38-year-old woman died on Tuesday in a hospital in the southern Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap after fighting the H5N1 virus for 10 days, the ministry said in a statement seen on Saturday.

She is Vietnam's second human infection reported this year and the first to have died from bird flu, which thrives best in cold weather and during the peak time of bird transportation, such as this month's Tet festival to mark the Lunar New Year.

Earlier this month a three-year-old girl in the central province of Khanh Hoa recovered from bird flu, the Health Ministry said.

Vietnam has confirmed 114 human infections of the H5N1 virus since 2003, 58 of them fatal, the ministry said.

It is the second highest toll after Indonesia's 134 deaths among the 15 countries on bird flu world map drawn by the World Health Organization.

Experts fear that the virus might mutate into a form easily passed from human to human, sparking a pandemic which could kill millions.