Why Debian 5? It's no longer supported so that might be why. Try upgrading to Squeeze.
# Use DNS to verify virus database version. Freshclam uses DNS TXT records
# to verify database and software versions. With this directive you can change
# the database verification domain.
# WARNING: Do not touch it unless you're configuring freshclam to use your
# own database verification domain.
# Default: current.cvd.clamav.net
#DNSDatabaseInfo current.cvd.clamav.net
# Uncomment the following line and replace XY with your country
# code. See
http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm for the full list.
# You can use db.XY.ipv6.clamav.net for IPv6 connections.
#DatabaseMirror db.XY.clamav.net
# database.clamav.net is a round-robin record which points to our most
# reliable mirrors. It's used as a fall back in case db.XY.clamav.net is
# not working. DO NOT TOUCH the following line unless you know what you
# are doing.
DatabaseMirror database.clamav.net
Try using those. Good luck
EDIT: If you need other options, I don't know where the GenCore one is defined. Try comparing with the ones in here: