Turkey: A Turkish girl died yesterday from suspected bird flu, while her brother was critically ill in hospital after testing positive for the virus.
Although the health ministry said initial tests on 12-year-old Fatma Ozcan proved negative, doctors still suspect she contracted the disease.
If both siblings are confirmed to have bird flu, it would bring the number of human cases in Turkey to 20.
The ministry said tests on her brother Muhammet (5) showed he has the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has already killed three other children in Dogubayazit, the same town in eastern Van province that the Ozcan family come from.
The Turkish victims are the first human cases reported outside east Asia since H5N1 re-emerged in 2003.
The virus mostly affects birds but has infected about 150 people and killed at least 79. The H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds and poultry across large parts of Turkey, particularly in poor villages stretching from Istanbul, at the gates of Europe, to Van near the Iranian and Iraqi borders.
Fatma was buried late yesterday in a simple funeral attended by family members in the largely Kurdish town, which has been hardest hit by the bird flu outbreak. Her father fainted at the site of her coffin, a Reuters cameraman said.
Several tests are required to establish whether a patient has H5N1. One of the children who died last week initially tested negative.
"The girl who was under treatment in Van, Fatma Ozcan, died today of lung failure. She couldn't be saved," the health ministry said in a statement.
"The first laboratory tests . . . came out negative for bird flu, but tests continue." It added: "Her brother who was in the same hospital . . . came out positive today."
Separately, Van university hospital doctor Huseyin Avni Sahin told reporters: "Fatma Ozcan died today from suspected avian influenza. She came from Dogubayazit five days ago."
Dr Sahin said Fatma was initially taken to a hospital in Dogubayazit after developing a fever and a cough after preparing a chicken with her family.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it believes human victims have contracted the disease from close contact with infected poultry, in most cases children playing with birds or helping families kill them for food or sale.
Scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into a form that can spread easily between humans, leading to a pandemic. European authorities have stepped up precautions.
Most of the dozen or so bird flu patients in Turkey are not in a critical condition but are still receiving treatment, with three people released from hospital last week, the WHO said. - (Reuters)