Experts are especially worried about the potential for bird flu to spread and mutate in China because of its vast poultry flocks and their close contact with people. It also is a major migration route for wild fowl, which experts say might be spreading the virus.

The Health Ministry confirmed two human cases in Hunan province in central China and Anhui province in the east, both of which had outbreaks in poultry in the past month, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The fatalities were a 12-year-old girl in Hunan and a 24-year-old female poultry worker in Anhui, said Roy Wadia, a World Health Organization spokesman in Beijing. He said the third case was the girl's 9-year-old brother, who fell ill but recovered.

China had initially said the girl, her brother and a schoolteacher who fell ill at the same time were negative for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. But the government later reopened the investigation and asked the WHO for help.

Wadia said China recorded the girl as a bird flu death but the WHO couldn't reach a conclusion because her body was cremated. He said Chinese investigators decided based on her shared background with her brother and the circumstances of her illness. There was no official word on the status of the teacher.

11 Outbreaks in Chickens and Ducks

Experts are especially worried about the potential for bird flu to spread and mutate in China because of its vast poultry flocks and their close contact with people. It also is a major migration route for wild fowl, which experts say might be spreading the virus.

China has reported 11 outbreaks in chickens and ducks over the past month in areas throughout the country, prompting authorities to destroy millions of birds in an effort to contain the virus.

The government hadn't previously disclosed that there were any suspected human cases in Anhui, where an outbreak Oct. 20 in the city of Tiancheng killed about 550 birds.

Wadia said the poultry worker didn't live near the site of that outbreak. But he said birds died in her village in what might have been an unreported case of the disease.

"She apparently had close contact with sick birds," he said. "She died in a hospital. She was therefore tested adequately."

14 Billion Farm Birds

On Tuesday, the government announced that it would vaccinate all of China's 14 billion farm birds.

In Liaoning in the northeast, which has suffered four outbreaks, officials already have vaccinated all of the province's 320 million farm birds, officials said Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, China's Cabinet discussed putting into law regulations on bird flu prevention, epidemic monitoring and emergency contingency plans, state television said.

The Cabinet also said it would offer tax breaks and subsidies to help counter the effects of bird flu outbreaks.

Liaoning province alone has destroyed more than 15 million chickens, ducks and other birds.