The latest death comes amid an ongoing dispute between the Southeast Asian country and the World Health Organization over sharing samples of the virus from patients there to monitor whether the H5N1 virus is mutating to a more dangerous form.

The 15-year-old girl died late last week after being hospitalized for 10 days in Semarang, a city 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of capital, Jakarta, said Agus Suryanto, who headed the team of doctors treating her. Tests from two local laboratories came back positive for bird flu on Wednesday, said Tatik Suryanti, a health agency official.

Authorities believe the girl — who lived near a chicken slaughterhouse — became infected with the H5N1 virus after coming into contact with sick poultry. An investigation continues.

Indonesia has regularly recorded human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. Its toll of 113 accounts for nearly half the 245 recorded fatalities worldwide.

Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry it could mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, possibly triggering a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.

Indonesia is considered a potential hotspot for that to happen, but the country’s health minister has refused to share virus samples with the World Health Organization for more than two years.

She argues that pharmaceutical companies will use the samples to make vaccines that are ultimately unaffordable to her own people. Critics say Indonesia’s policy is making it harder to see if the virus is morphing into a more dangerous form.

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