HANOI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A five-year-old Vietnamese girl who ate poultry has been infected with bird flu, the first human case reported in the country this year, state-run television said on Tuesday.

The patient from the northern province of Thanh Hoa has been hospitalised after eating poultry, and dead poultry was also found in her neighbourhood, the Vietnam Television station said in its noon broadcast.

Tests last Saturday confirmed the girl had the H5N1 bird flu virus, it said.

Last month bird flu resurfaced in poultry in the north, killing ducks and chickens. [ID:nHAN395751]

Five Vietnamese died of bird flu in 2008 out of six reported H5N1 infections and all were found in northern Vietnam during the first quarter of the year, when spring cool temperature allows the virus to thrive best.

The H5N1 strain has killed 247 people globally among the 391 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.

Before the latest case in Vietnam, WHO said Vietnam had 106 infections, the second highest number of cases among 15 countries with known human cases after Indonesia. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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