ANKARA - A UN health expert said yesterday that the case of two Turkish boys who tested positive for bird flu without developing symptoms provided a chance to learn more about the virus which has killed 78 people worldwide.
The two children contracted the virus after playing with two dead birds they found near their home in the central Turkish town of Beypazari, west of the capital Ankara.
"This is a very interesting case. They have still shown no symptoms of the virus and yet have tested positive," said Dr Guenael Rodier, head of a World Health Organisation (WHO) team visiting Turkey.
"The normal flu virus is always at its most virulent at the start of the process, but you don't necessarily exhibit the symptoms at that stage," he said, suggesting a possible similarity between avian influenza and the normal flu virus.
"If so, we have diagnosed the H5N1 virus at the very early stages [ in the boys]. We hope to study this case carefully. This is an opportunity to learn about the disease."
BRUSSELS - The European Union warned national governments yesterday not to relax their vigilance in the battle against bird flu, ordering them to maintain strict surveillance on wild birds and poultry until the end of 2006.
The EU's current monitoring programme, set to expire at the end of this month, requires governments to keep a close watch on migratory routes of birds and areas where wild birds might enter into close contact with domestic birds, such as ponds.
National veterinary experts authorised an extra €2 million in EU funding for laboratory tests, to cover the rest of 2006.
JAKARTA- A 29-year-old Indonesian woman in Jakarta has the deadly strain of bird flu, officials said yesterday. Outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organisation have so far confirmed 11 deaths and five other cases in Indonesia where patients survived.
The woman was admitted to Jakarta's hospital designated to treat patients with bird flu on Sunday.
BEIJING - Two more people in China have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, bringing the death toll to five.
The World Health Organisation said on its web site that the two victims, who were reported as having the disease last month, were a 10-year-old girl in the southern region of Guangxi and a 35-year-old man in eastern Jiangxi province.
The Xinhua news agency added that scientists had identified H5N1 in a dead migratory bird found near the house of the Guangxi victim.
The latest person to be infected is a six-year-old boy from the central province of Hunan, who fell ill in December and is now in hospital. The boy's condition was critical, state media said.
CHICAGO - Breeding grounds in Alaska where migratory birds from Asia and North America mingle are a focus of a broadening US bird flu detection effort that is enlisting American zoos as sentinels, experts said yesterday.
Some 200 zoos are expected to take part in the screening effort to keep a lookout for the virus, which will be quickly spotted by keepers and veterinarians while tending the animals. Zoo officials said there is a fair amount of contact between wild birds and zoo birds, especially those kept outside.
BUCHAREST - Romania has found new suspected cases of bird flu in poultry in a region west of the Danube delta, where the deadly strain of the virus was first detected in October. It has found avian flu in 26 villages in and outside the Danube delta, Europe's largest wetlands.
