BAKU, April 5 (RIA Novosti, Gerai Dadashev) - Azerbaijan has sent samples from 43 people to a World Health Organization laboratory in London to be tested for the lethal H5N1 bird-flu strain, the country's health ministry said Wednesday.

Semaya Mamedova, the head of the ministry's press service, said all the individuals in question had been pronounced clear of bird flu by local doctors, but that the samples were being sent to the WHO reference lab in London's Mill Hill for clarification.

The WHO said March 21 that five out of seven people infected with bird flu in the former Soviet republic had died. Tests showed all seven had caught the virus after contact with wild birds.

A sample taken from a patient diagnosed with H5N1 in Baku has also been sent along with the results of analysis carried out locally, Mamedova said. A positive diagnosis in London would bring Azerbaijan's count of human bird flu cases to eight.