THE deadly avian flu virus which has killed 65 people in Asia is being taken as a serious threat by Kent doctors.

Communicable disease experts are quickly gathering information on the subject in case birds in this country become infected.

At the moment it is not thought the virus can spread from human to human, but the worry is it could mutate and become a worldwide killer.

“Avian flu or bird flu is caused by an influenza virus and the problem with flu viruses is that they undergo antigenic shift, meaning that they change or mutate,” said Dr Mathi Chandrakumar, director of the Kent Health Protection Unit.

“This makes it very difficult to predict what they will look like in humans and therefore it is difficult to prepare a vaccine for it. So far there have been transmissions from birds to humans in only a few cases and that was only people who had directly handled birds. So far we have not had any human to human transmission and it’s not a worldwide phenomenon but it may become a serious issue,” he said.

Avian flu viruses occur naturally among bird populations and wild birds carry the viruses in their stomach without usually becoming ill. However, the viruses hit domesticated birds badly - making them very sick or killing them.

In humans, symptoms of this particular strain of flu include severe conjunctivitis, a high fever, insomnia, a sore throat, persistent cough and painful muscle ache. Pneumonia is often a secondary complication and the most likely cause of death from the virus.

At the moment there is no vaccine against bird flu as it is rarely seen in humans, but the Government is already stockpiling anti flu medicines including Tamiflu - one of a group of medicines called neuraminidase inhibitors which stop the virus spreading around the body.

Dr Chandrakumar said that Tamiflu was available, but exactly how effective it would be against bird flu was still unknown.

“The first thing we would do would be vaccinate people,” he said, “but we do not know whether the vaccine will work until we know what the virus looks like in humans.

“A lot of work is going into planning and we in Kent are preparing by getting all the emergency services together should there be a pandemic.

However Dr Chandrakumar said it was imperative people did not worry. “There is no imminent threat and so far there is no evidence of human to human transmission,” he said.

“We are taking it seriously and we are taking steps to make sure that it’s dealt with should it happen.”