A three-year-old boy from the Indonesian capital Jakarta died last week of bird flu, the Health Ministry announced Saturday, raising the country’s death toll from the disease to 105.

The boy, identified as only Han from the southern part of the capital Jakarta, fell ill on February 5 and died last Friday at a hospital in the city, local radio El-Shinta reported.

Senior Health Ministry official Nyoman Kandun confirmed the report.

“Laboratory results of studies on throat swabs and blood samples showed that (the boy) was positively infected with bird flu,” the ministry said, according to the Associated Press.

There was no word on where the boy contracted the virus. It is believed though that he had contact with fowl in the past, as there are locations where fowl are butchered around his house.

According to an early Saturday report on the Health Ministry’s Web site, another 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province, who became ill on February 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, died of bird flu.

Health experts fear that the virus, which is usually spread through human-bird contact, could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and millions of people could die because they would have no immunity to the new strain. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Indonesia has the highest number of bird flu deaths in the world, which now stands at 105 out of the 129 cases in the country. Health experts fear that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, could become a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 225 people have died worldwide from bird flu.