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British labs confirm two Turkish teenagers who died had bird flu
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-07 11:21
A British laboratory has found that two Turkish teenagers who died earlier
this week had bird flu, authorities said, and a health official in Geneva said
scientists were closing in on identifying the virus as the deadly H5N1 strain.
"If it's confirmed, these would be the first human cases outside China and
Southeast Asia," World Health Organization spokeswoman Christine McNab said
Friday.
The strain has already killed more than 70 people in East Asia since 2003.
Authorities are closely monitoring H5N1 for fear it could mutate into a form
easily passed among humans and spark a pandemic.
Birds in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive
for H5N1.
An 11-year-old girl died Friday of suspected bird flu in eastern Turkey _
days after her teenage brother and sister succumbed to the disease _ and their
doctor said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens.
A British laboratory confirmed the two teenagers who died had suffered from
bird flu, but that tests had not yet been completed in order to determine
whether it was the H5N1 strain, said a Turkish health ministry official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the
media.
The British lab also confirmed that another child, Yusuf Tunc, tested
positive for bird flu, the official said. It was unclear whether Tunc,
hospitalized in eastern Van, had any connection to the dead teenagers. He was
reported to be in serious condition.
Separately, the Health Ministry announced late Friday that yet another
patient, who was hospitalized in Van, tested positive for bird flu according to
preliminary tests carried out at a Turkish lab in Istanbul.
Apart from Tunc, 19 other people were hospitalized in Van with flu-like
symptoms. Authorities said tests were still underway to determine whether any of
them had contracted bird flu. Five other people also with flu-like symptoms were
hospitalized in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, officials said.
Preliminary tests in Turkey indicated two of the siblings died of H5N1, and
scientists examining samples at a laboratory in Britain have already confirmed
that the virus is in the H5 family and appear to be close to determining if it
is the deadly H5N1, McNab said.
The Health Ministry said more than 5,000 boxes of the antiviral drug Tamiflu
were sent to eastern Turkey and five artificial respiration machines were also
sent to the hospital in Van.
In Switzerland, Tamiflu maker Roche Pharmaceuticals said it had expedited the
delivery of 100,000 packs of the drug.
Turks across the country hunted for the influenza medicine in pharmacies,
while in the eastern part of Turkey, even simple gloves and masks were in high
demand. Hospitals and clinics in eastern and southeastern parts of the country,
where some H5N1 bird flu cases were confirmed in fowl, were overwhelmed with
people suffering from regular human flu.
WHO was also conducting tests to check whether the bird flu cases resulted
from human-to-human transmission, spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said in Geneva.
Results are expected "in the next few days," she said.
Authorities and residents have culled thousands of fowl throughout the
country in recent days.
Associated Press reporters Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara
contributed to this report.
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