The Malaysian government cleared on Saturday three people suspected of contracting a deadly bird flu virus but admitted another person to hospital for checks. Health officials are screening hundreds of people living in a village near the Thai border after two chickens there were found with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza. The World Health Organisation fears the H5N1 virus, blamed for 27 deaths in Asia this year, could mutate into a highly contagious form which will trigger the next flu pandemic. Tests on the three people initially quarantined in hospital with cold symptoms -- two villagers and a veterinary worker sent to the scene of the outbreak -- showed they had not contracted bird flu, deputy director general of health Shafie Ooyub said. "One of them had normal fever and the others did not have fever," he told reporters. But Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said a veterinarian from another part of the same northern state of Kelantan had been admitted to hospital for checks. --MORE 1819 Local Time 1519 GMT
