Gork Boneman
01-08-2006, 09:49 AM
Original Recipe or Extra Crispy (http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=68001&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56)
Avian flu threat mounts in Turkey
Published: Sunday, 8 January, 2006, 11:23 AM Doha Time
ISTANBUL: Turkey reported yesterday a fourth human case of bird flu and new outbreaks among birds amid accusations that the government is mishandling the crisis in the country’s remote east.
With the disease now at Europe’s doorstep, experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) arrived in Turkey but bad weather forced them to postpone to today a trip to the infected areas.
Health Minister Recep Akdag said avian influenza had been detected in a fourth person, currently under treatment in a hospital in the city of Van, after officials confirmed three human cases on Friday.
He did not specify whether the virus was the lethal H5N1 strain blamed for the death of two siblings in the same hospital over the past week, the first human fatalities of bird flu outside Southeast Asia and China.
“There are four cases confirmed by the labs... two are dead, as you know, and the other two are still living,” Akdag said in a television interview.
Results from a third sibling who also died were negative.
The three children perished after playing with the head of a slaughtered chicken, which the impoverished family ate after it fell sick.
They lived in the town of Dogubeyazit, near the border with Iran, from where most of the 30-odd patients undergoing treatment in Van came.
As dozens of panicked people rushed to hospitals across the country and the emergency culling of fowl continued, Akdag ruled out human-to-human transmission, a possibility that may spark a global pandemic.
“We do not expect an epidemic that will affect the whole public,” he said.
Currently, humans are thought only to contract bird flu if they come into close contact with infected birds, but scientists fear that millions could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become highly contagious.
Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker announced that avian influenza had been detected among birds in two more provinces in the east, Bitlis and Erzincan.
Outbreaks have been confirmed in three other areas in eastern Turkey, as well as a town in the southeast and in a region close to Ankara, in the west.
As authorities scrambled to raise awareness, the government faced accusations that it had dragged its feet over bird flu alerts in remote eastern areas, some of which were dated two months ago.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has said the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in poultry in eastern Turkey.
A commission statement said tests at the specialised laboratory in Weybridge, southern England, had confirmed the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain in poultry in the area.
“The European Commission has been informed that test results from the EU laboratory at Weybridge confirmed that the avian influenza virus, which has recently caused an outbreak in poultry in eastern Turkey, is a high pathogenic type H5N1,” it said.
The sub-type H5N1 has claimed more than 70 lives in Southeast Asia and China since 2003. – AFP
Avian flu threat mounts in Turkey
Published: Sunday, 8 January, 2006, 11:23 AM Doha Time
ISTANBUL: Turkey reported yesterday a fourth human case of bird flu and new outbreaks among birds amid accusations that the government is mishandling the crisis in the country’s remote east.
With the disease now at Europe’s doorstep, experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) arrived in Turkey but bad weather forced them to postpone to today a trip to the infected areas.
Health Minister Recep Akdag said avian influenza had been detected in a fourth person, currently under treatment in a hospital in the city of Van, after officials confirmed three human cases on Friday.
He did not specify whether the virus was the lethal H5N1 strain blamed for the death of two siblings in the same hospital over the past week, the first human fatalities of bird flu outside Southeast Asia and China.
“There are four cases confirmed by the labs... two are dead, as you know, and the other two are still living,” Akdag said in a television interview.
Results from a third sibling who also died were negative.
The three children perished after playing with the head of a slaughtered chicken, which the impoverished family ate after it fell sick.
They lived in the town of Dogubeyazit, near the border with Iran, from where most of the 30-odd patients undergoing treatment in Van came.
As dozens of panicked people rushed to hospitals across the country and the emergency culling of fowl continued, Akdag ruled out human-to-human transmission, a possibility that may spark a global pandemic.
“We do not expect an epidemic that will affect the whole public,” he said.
Currently, humans are thought only to contract bird flu if they come into close contact with infected birds, but scientists fear that millions could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become highly contagious.
Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker announced that avian influenza had been detected among birds in two more provinces in the east, Bitlis and Erzincan.
Outbreaks have been confirmed in three other areas in eastern Turkey, as well as a town in the southeast and in a region close to Ankara, in the west.
As authorities scrambled to raise awareness, the government faced accusations that it had dragged its feet over bird flu alerts in remote eastern areas, some of which were dated two months ago.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has said the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in poultry in eastern Turkey.
A commission statement said tests at the specialised laboratory in Weybridge, southern England, had confirmed the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain in poultry in the area.
“The European Commission has been informed that test results from the EU laboratory at Weybridge confirmed that the avian influenza virus, which has recently caused an outbreak in poultry in eastern Turkey, is a high pathogenic type H5N1,” it said.
The sub-type H5N1 has claimed more than 70 lives in Southeast Asia and China since 2003. – AFP