Indonesia reported its 87th death from bird flu Monday, saying a 44-year-old woman from Sumatra died over the weekend.

Indonesia’s health ministry announced Monday that a woman from Sumatra had died of bird flu over the weekend, raising the toll in the nation worst affected by the disease to 87.

The 44-year-old woman died at the general hospital in Pekanbaru, central Sumatra. Two samples taken from the woman tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the health ministry's bird flu information center said in a press release.

“The total number of cumulative Avian Influenza human cases in Indonesia is 108, with 87 deaths,” the center said in the statement.

The woman was first treated at a clinic on Oct. 1 and then moved to a private hospital in Pekanbaru the following day. She was then transferred to the state referral hospital for bird flu cases, the center said.

BBC News reports that she fell ill after buying chickens from a market in Pekanbaru.

In mid-August, Indonesian health officials announced the first human fatality from bird flu in Bali, in a 29-year-old woman. This was the first time the dreaded disease had been transmitted to a human in Bali.

Officials said dead chickens were found around the woman’s home, which could well be the source of the disease. Experts think the people infected thus far contracted the disease from poultry.

The virus’s mutation to a form transmissible amongst humans could lead to a pandemic. The possibilities of containing it, once the outbreak occurs, are slim, particularly since there is no vaccine yet. Scientists are still developing a pre-endemic vaccine.

Indonesia is the hardest affected country in the world when it comes to bird flu. Since the H5N1 virus emerged in South East Asia in late 2003, it has claimed more than 180 lives around the world.

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore announced in late September that they had created a prototype for a handheld device that can detect the H5N1 bird flu virus within 30 minutes, from raw throat swab samples.

The device is able to isolate, purify and amplify viral RNA from raw throat swabs, reducing the four hours necessary for a lab test to a mere 30 minutes. It is also significantly less costly – a single test could be as cheap as $0.20.

The scientists say the new device would be especially beneficial in poorer countries that are lacking in public health resources. Rapid diagnosis of the first cases would be essential in order to contain a global bird flu pandemic.