Indonesia’s Health Ministry has added a new victim to the growing toll of bird flu deaths, as a 29-year-old woman from Tangerang passed away Saturday.

Another resident of Tangerang, a town on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta has succumbed to bird flu, the Health Ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokesperson Sumardi told the Associated Press that the 29-year-old housewife was first hospitalized on Jan. 28, six days after she developed symptoms. She was then moved to Persahabatan Hospital in eastern Jakarta on Jan. 29, where she died Saturday, Feb. 2.

Her death brings the country’s death toll to 103. “Her death raised the Indonesian death toll to 103 out of 126 cases,” Sumardi said.

Health officials may have a lead concerning the source of contamination, as the woman was reported to have visited her parents; their neighbors kept chickens, Sumardi said, but it not yet clear whether the chickens were infected.

Last week, at least four other persons were confirmed as victims of bird flu: a 23-year-old woman from East Jakarta, a 9-year-old boy from the capital’s outskirts, a 32-year-old man from Tangerang and a 31-year-old woman from Tangerang.

Saturday’s death is the eighth in 2008, according to health officials.

As of last week, authorities were investigating the sources of infection but each victim appeared to be somehow linked to birds, whether living near a poultry slaughterhouse or in a neighborhood where pigeons were raised.

The majority of confirmed human cases since 2003 have been linked to contact with contaminated poultry. Scientists fear a global bird flu pandemic for which no vaccine exists yet.

Emil Agustiono, a top national bird flu committee official, was quoted last month by Reuters as explaining that the recent increase in deaths is due to weather conditions and poor sanitation. “The virus is happy when it's wet. It thrives during the rainy season ... combine that with poor sanitation and lack of awareness. The people in the slums are at greater risk.”

Sumardi told the Associated Press that a 38-year-old woman from Kali Deres, the Jakarta neighborhood closest to Tangerang, has also been confirmed as having been infected with bird flu. She is being treated at Persahabatan Hospital.