BANGKOK, March 16 (Reuters) - Tests have confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a 42-year-old woman in Laos who possibly had contact with an infected duck, the Lao Health Ministry and World Health Organisation said on Friday. The woman, the second confirmed bird flu death in landlocked Laos, fell ill in late February and died on March 4. A healthy duck kept at her home in a province near the capital Vientiane had tested positive for H5, the ministry and the WHO said in a joint statement. The government has stepped up surveillance and containment measures since a 15-year-old girl fell sick from bird flu in February. She died on March 8. The virus appears to be spreading among poultry into southern provinces of the impoverished Communist-led country after outbreaks around Vientiane in January, the first in seven months. "We ask the Lao people to join together to halt the spread of the disease," Health Minister Ponmek Dalaloy said in the statement.
