Bird flu killing most of those who catch it

By SCOTT MacLEOD and NZPA

The Asian bird flu is killing three out of every four people who catch it, says a New Zealand virus expert at the World Health Organisation.

But despite the grim toll, many New Zealand travellers arriving from Asia seem barely aware of the disease and say they had no health checks when returning to Auckland.

Christchurch virologist Lance Jennings, who is fighting the outbreak with the WHO in the Philippines, said the death rate was very high.

"Nearly everyone who has been identified with the virus has died."

Six out of eight people in Vietnam and two out of three in Thailand had died. But the WHO was not sure of the exact death rate because it was not clear how many people had caught the virus.

Some travellers arriving in Auckland from Thailand last night spoke of a wave of anxiety spreading through the Asian country.

Others were barely aware of the disease, or seemed to have been misinformed about its origins.

Kane Fawcett, 27, was returning from nine months in the region and said he started hearing reports in the past week or two.

"There's a lot of paranoid Thais," he said. "My brother's girlfriend is Thai and she won't go near chicken. She told me the disease came out of the United States."

Julian Lynn, 45, saw a few stories about the virus in the Bangkok Post but said news of the disease came too suddenly and recently to make him worried.

He heard that chicken sales had halved in Thailand, although it still seemed to be on menus if diners wanted it.

"We ate chicken on the flight over," Mr Lynn said.

However, two Auckland women returning from Chiang Mai said poultry was "pulled off the menu" in the northern Thai city.

At least one local school had also stopped serving it to children, they said.

None of the New Zealanders was aware of extra health checks or security at airports.

Dr Jennings said evidence from Vietnam suggested children were most at risk, since they were the main people catching it.

The virus was therefore different to the H5N1 strain that struck Hong Kong in 1997, affecting people of all ages.

Scientists have found small differences between the two viruses' amino acids.