Turkey’s Suspect Bird Flu Cases Hit 32

By RICHARD GRAY

THE number of suspected bird flu cases in humans rose to at least 32 in Turkey yesterday as British scientists confirmed two children who died last week were infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.

Further tests were being carried out on samples from a third child from the same family who is suspected to have also died from the disease.

Two other children, a five-year-old and an eight-year-old, who are being treated in hospital were also confirmed to have the killer strain of the virus, which has already killed more than 70 people in Asia since 2003.

Officials also confirmed the chickens suspected of causing the outbreak in eastern Turkey had been infected with the same strain of the virus, a particularly deadly form of flu.

Panic that the virus is now beginning to spread throughout the country saw residents besiege local hospitals seeking treatment.

It is believed the three latest victims, from the remote village of Dagdelen near Turkey’s border with Armenia, had been playing with dead chickens before they fell ill.

Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, and his two sisters Fatma, 15, and Hulya, 11, were taken to hospital for treatment but later died.

Samples from the sick animals were sent to Britain for testing at the European Commission’s community reference laboratory in Weybridge, in Surrey.

In a statement released yesterday, the commission said tests had shown the birds were infected by the H5N1 strain. Preliminary tests by the UN Health Agency had confirmed two of the human deaths were caused by bird flu.

Doctors in Turkey are now treating more than 30 other people, mostly young children, who are suspected of having the deadly virus.

Turkish officials confirmed another child, Yusuf Tunc, from the eastern city of Van, had tested positive for bird flu, along with another patient in the same city.

Another 19 people have been quarantined in hospital in Van after falling ill with flu-like symptoms. A further five were taken to hospital in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir with a similar illness.

A family of seven who travelled from eastern Turkey to the western town of Yalova were also admitted to a hospital in Istanbul. The family, which included five children, were reported to have fallen ill after eating a sick chicken a few days ago in the east of the country.

Four members of another Turkish family in the city of Sanliurfa, on the border with Syria, were being treated in hospital after eating a sick chicken on Friday.

Professor Fatma Sirmatel, from Harran University Hospital, said: “The family had eaten a sick chicken, but we cannot say at the moment that they have bird flu. We put them in the emergency room and they are in quarantine.”

The cases confirmed as being caused by the H5N1 virus are the first to emerge in Europe.

The virus has already been discovered in flocks of domestic poultry in Romania, the Ukraine and Turkey.

An international team of experts is now visiting the affected areas in Turkey.

An EU ban on imports from Turkey of live birds and poultry products, imposed in October, remains in place.

The Turkish health ministry said more than 5,000 boxes of the antiviral drug Tamiflu are now being sent to eastern Turkey to help deal with the crisis.

Professor Hugh Pennington, a microbiologist from Aberdeen University, said scientists would be looking for minute changes in the virus that may indicate it is mutating.

He said: “That so many people have fallen ill does not mean the virus is spreading between humans.

“By comparing isolates from both the humans and the birds, it should be possible to spot any differences and this will give a good indication about whether the virus is mutating or not.”

The Turkish health minister, Recep Akdaglast, last night said: “There is no indication to suggest we are facing a virus that spreads from human to human.”