The bird flu that has killed at least three people in Vietnam could turn out to have a far more devastating impact than the SARS virus if it links up with human influenza, an expert said yesterday.

Dr Veronica Chan, chairman of the microbiology and parasitology department at the University of the Philippines? College of Medicine, said humans would have no protection from the resulting new strain of flu. ?There is no protection from that new strain of influenza virus, so it?s going to cause a big epidemic,? she told Reuters in an interview.

?The pandemics that occurred in the previous century, the 20th century, were really devastating, especially the Spanish flu. We had that in 1918 and 40 million died of that. We should worry. It kills. It kills.? Vietnam reported two more suspected bird flu cases yesterday, among 15 people who fell ill with influenza in Hanoi and surrounding provinces.

Twelve, most of them children, have died. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday tests conducted by a Hong Kong laboratory had confirmed that bird flu killed three. WHO regional director Shigeru Omi said the consequences could be dire if the virus latched on to the human influenza and spread among people. Chan said a new virus could be born if a human already carrying a strain of influenza caught bird flu.

?The bird and the human influenza can re-assort their genetic components and come out with progenies, meaning products or a new virus,? she said. ?If the influenza occurs in a pandemic form, which means that the global population has no defence against it, then we worry. In the SARS experience, many more survived than died of it. That means the immune system worked very well against the SARS virus.?

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome infected 8 000 people in about 30 countries early last year, killing more than 700.