A 35-year-old Vietnamese woman became the fifth person in that country to die of the bird flu since December 30.

The woman, from Tra Vinh province in the southern part of the country, apparently was hired by a neighbor to slaughter sick ducks for sale. Health experts are relieved that there has been no reported human-to-human spread of the disease and that all known cases have resulted from direct contact with infected birds.

United Nations health experts fear a world-wide pandemic of bird flu if human-to-human contact resulted in the spread of the disease. A slight mutation of the virus could cause the pandemic to occur as well although thus far, there are no reports that the disease is any stronger than it was last year. Predictions for the number of deaths worldwide if this took place are well over 10 million.

Vietnamese officials are hopeful that the disease will be contained this year. 'With the experiences from last year, hopefully we can minimize the damages,' said Dau Ngoc Hao, deputy director of the animal health department.

According to Vietnamese officials, there is only one other confirmed case of the bird flu in the country at this time who is hospitalized in critical condition. That number is almost certainly too low as many cases in rural areas are not properly reported to authorities.