BANGKOK: Spreading deeper into Asia, bird flu claimed its first human victim in Thailand.

A six-year-old boy died yesterday creating fears reminiscent of SARS.

Pakistan said 2 million chickens had died from a mild form of the disease and China's Taiwan reported a new outbreak of the mild H5N2 virus which cannot, unlike the H5N1 strain, pass to humans as it has in Viet Nam, where it killed six people.

Thailand expanded its bird flu crisis zone from two to 10 of its 76 provinces as it grappled with a virus the World Health Organization (WHO) fears might mate with human influenza and unleash a flu pandemic among people with no immunity to it.

Indonesia said at least 400 farms across the vast archipelago suffered outbreaks. However, officials said they will know by the end of the week, when laboratory test results will be available, whether it was the less dangerous of two avian flu strains.

The WHO said it has seen no evidence of its greatest fear, people-to-people transmission.

It fears the potentially deadly H5N1 strain could jump into Myanmar and Laos from stricken farms just over the border in Thailand.

Hans Wagner, a senior official of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, said 700 chickens had died on a farm in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and a Thai laboratory was trying to find out why.

The results will be known soon.

"Laos also has a very poor public health infrastructure," WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said in Manila. "If the virus became embedded in Laos, we'll have very serious problems."

The spread of bird flu, which has also struck in Japan, South Korea and Cambodia, has emerged with a speed the WHO calls "historically unprecedented" and the Thai and Indonesian governments have been criticized for not revealing sooner.

The Thai boy's death means all but one of at least seven confirmed human bird flu victims have been children, leaving scientists trying to figure out why the young are so vulnerable.

Wild birds behind bird flu outbreak?

HONG KONG/SEOUL/BANGKOK: Migrating birds may be responsible for the unprecedented spread of the highly contagious bird flu that has broken out across Asia.

Scientists are baffled by the wildfire spread of the disease, which the WHO calls "historically unprecedented," but one theory is wild birds are behind it.

"Migratory birds may explain the rapid spread of the virus in the region," said Lo Wing-lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong.

The H5N1 bird flu virus this time seems to have broken out more or less simultaneously in places thousands of kilometres apart.

"We don't know how this virus is spreading and so it's safe to presume that nowhere can consider itself safe," Cordingley said. "The challenge is growing by the day."

Hong Kong's health chief, Yeoh Eng-kiong, warned residents to keep away from wild birds although the financial hub has been spared an outbreak of the virus so far.

"Wild birds may be infected and their feces are known to carry the virus, so people have to be careful," Yeoh said.

A government spokeswoman added: "People who come in contact with wild birds must wash their hands thoroughly."

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday there has been bird and chicken deaths on the outskirts of Bangkok, but the cause is not yet clear.

"At this point, the health and agriculture ministries are looking into it, but I don't know if it's bird flu or not," Thaksin told reporters at Government House.

Last week one farmer, Chavalit Pholchamroon, said chickens owned by a friend in the province of Chachoengsao started dropping dead after coming into close contact with storks that he said migrate from Siberia every year.

The birds, which arrived in November, feed in rice fields and wetlands, some located near chicken farms.

Bangkok's The Nation newspaper reported that large numbers of migrating birds and waterfowl have been found dead in many parts of Thailand.

The report said other birds had died, including pigeons in Bangkok and partridges in Prachuab Khiri Khan province, 230 kilometres southwest of the capital.

When asked about the death of the birds, Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsutin said test results from dead bird samples were not yet available.

While experts in Japan in mid-January dismissed as slim the likelihood of migratory birds carrying the disease to that country, wild birds were blamed for a small outbreak in Hong Kong from late 2002 and early 2003.

That winter, dead waterfowl were found infected with the virus in a park. Although workers moved in quickly to cull other birds in the Shatin park, chickens were found sick with the virus within days.

"The likely source of the infection of those birds are migratory birds landing in those parks," said Lo.

Many farms in Hong Kong are netted to keep out wild birds but nerves were jolted last week when authorities found a dead peregrine falcon ridden with the virus.

Officials do not know where the falcon came from although a handful of the migratory birds, which breed in Siberia, are known to spend the winter in the region around Hong Kong.

Different virus in South Korea

The Korea Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday the deadly bird flu hitting South Korean chicken farms is genetically different from the avian flu that killed six people in Viet Nam. But it is still unclear whether the South Korean variety could jump to humans.

The findings are based on preliminary results of tests conducted by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States after the first case of bird flu was uncovered in South Korea last month.

According to the tests, the H5N1 strain confirmed on 16 South Korean farms is slightly different from the Viet Nam variety, the Korean health agency said. The avian sickness is also likely to have entered each country through different channels, the agency said.

Final CDC results will be come out next week, and findings on the likelihood of the South Korean strain jumping to humans will take longer, the Korean agency said. None of the 1,500 people who have been exposed to the flu in South Korea have shown signs of illness so far, it said.

Since bird flu was discovered in South Korea, authorities have culled 24 million chickens and ducks to contain the outbreak. Another farm was quarantined on Sunday, when 3,700 of its 23,000 chickens were found dead.

(China Daily 01/27/2004 page1)