indonesia, thailand, vietnam, china and cambodia. the highly pathogenic h5n1 strain at the moment is hard for humans to catch and remains essentially a virus in birds. however, scientists fear it could mutate into a form that could easily pass from human to human. the virus is endemic in poultry in parts of asia, and has affected birds in two-thirds of the provinces in indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of some 17,000 islands and 220 million people. indonesia has millions of chickens and ducks, many in the backyards of rural or urban homes. --spa 00:00 local time 21:00 gmt nnnn
