TURKEY: Bird flu claimed its second human victim outside China and southeast Asia yesterday with the death of another Turkish teenager from the same family, it has been confirmed.
Six people from a separate province were taken to hospital with suspected bird flu, raising the number of patients under scrutiny to about 20. This indicates that the disease may have spread to a wider area of eastern Turkey.
Although not definitively confirmed as the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the deaths appear to mark a major shift westwards to the edge of Europe of a disease that has killed 74 people in eastern Asia since 2003.
The dead children came from the remote, rural Agri province near the Armenian border where people live close to livestock and poultry, which they raise mostly to eat themselves.
"We lost Fatma Kocyigit this morning," said Niyazi Tanilir, governor in the eastern province of Van. The 15-year-old girl died in hospital at about 6.30am local time. Her brother, Mehmet Ali Kocyigit (14), died at the weekend and relatives buried him in a deep grave covered with lime as a precaution. Their 11-year-old sister, Hulya, is in a weak condition in hospital and brother Ali Hasan (6) is also ill.
Agriculture minister Mehdi Eker, who flew to the region yesterday, said authorities had identified bird flu in five areas and were placing them all under quarantine.
The six patients admitted to hospital yesterday were from Igdir, just to the north of Agri where the children came from.
Turkish officials said the cause of Mehmet Ali's death was the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The diagnosis was made by two laboratories in Turkey after initial tests were negative.
Guenael Rodier, at the World Health Organisation's European office, said they were confident this was a human case of H5N1 but more tests would be needed for a definitive diagnosis.