HANOI — Vietnamese authorities on Monday confirmed another human bird flu case, but said the patient in central Vietnam was recovering from the disease which has killed at least 48 people in the region.

A 27-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital in Ha Tinh province last Wednesday with a high fever, coughing and difficulty breathing, said Bui Bon, director of the Ha Tinh provincial health department, 350 kilometers south of Hanoi.

All the symptoms have since vanished and the woman is expected to be discharged soon, Bon said, adding that the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi notified the hospital that the woman had contracted the potent H5N1 strain of the virus.

The woman had eaten duck with six other family members about two weeks ago at her in-laws' house, Bon said. The duck had been raised by the family and had not shown any signs of illness, he said.

Animal health officials have slaughtered all of the family's ducks and have taken samples from ducks in the village and will slaughter all fowl there if bird flu is found, he said.

Overall, 48 people in the region have been killed by the virus, which emerged on Asian poultry farms in December 2003. The disease has killed two people from Cambodia and 12 in Thailand. The remainder died in Vietnam, including 14 in the latest wave that began in late December 2004.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong-based brokerage and investment group, CLSA, on Monday issued a report saying economies in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China would likely be hardest hit if bird flu evolves into a form that is easily transmittable from human to human, sparking a world flu pandemic.

So far, health experts have seen no change in the virus and most human cases have been traced back to contact with sick birds.