Three Turks tested positive for a deadly strain of bird flu in
the capital Ankara on Sunday, a new stage in the westward sweep of
the disease from its east Asian origins towards major economic
centers in Turkey and Europe.
The first case of the virus jumping from birds to humans outside
China and southeast Asia occurred last week in rural eastern
Turkey, where three children from the same family died after
contracting the highly potent H5N1 strain.
As doctors confirmed that two children and a 60-year-old man
were being treated in Ankara for the virus, Russia raised fears of
the disease impacting Turkey's economy by warning its citizens
against visiting the popular holiday destination.
Doctors said the infected children, aged 5 and 2, came from
Beypazari west of Ankara and had caught the virus after contact
with dead wild birds. Their parents tested negative.
Ankara is about 400 km (250 miles) east of Istanbul, Turkey's
densely populated commercial and tourism hub, and from the
continent of Europe. Officials said the culling of birds had begun
in the Ankara districts hit by bird flu.
Four children have also tested positive for the H5N1 strain in
the city of Van, about 800 km (500 miles) east of Ankara, bringing
the total number of those known to be infected in Turkey to
seven.
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The state Anatolian news agency said a 5-year-old boy was admitted
to hospital with suspected bird flu in Corum in central Turkey on
Sunday.
The agriculture ministry said bird flu had been detected among
poultry in 15 different locations, including Istanbul.
The children who died in Van last week almost certainly caught
the virus directly from chickens, officials say.
But world health authorities worry that human exposure to the
bird flu could lead to the emergence of a mutation allowing easier
transmission between humans -- and raising the prospect of a global
pandemic.
Russian warning
A team of World Health Organization doctors arrived in Van on
Sunday evening after and said the Turkish government was behaving
in a transparent way in fighting the disease.
"The health ministry has a good understanding that this is both
a local problem and also a global problem," one WHO official said
in televised comments. His name was not given.
Iran, which borders the Turkish region worst affected by the
outbreak, closed one of its border crossings, forcing many Turks
travelling there for this week's major Muslim holiday marking the
Feast of the Sacrifice to return home, Anatolian said.
Interfax news agency quoted Russia's chief state epidemiologist,
Gennady Onishchenko, as saying: "I earnestly advise Russian
citizens to refrain from travelling to Turkey, especially to the
eastern province of Agri and the city of Dogubayazit, where the
situation is particularly alarming."
Russians flock to Turkey every year seeking sun and sand. They
head mainly for Mediterranean and Aegean resorts many hundreds of
km (miles) from Dogubayazit and Agri.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has appealed to Turks to
help in the mass cull aimed at stemming the advance of the virus
and has promised adequate compensation to those affected.
But in the Dogubayazit district hit by the virus, local people
have accused the authorities of being slow to act.
A Reuters reporter saw chickens still walking on the streets and
some escaping as they were about to be carried in large bags to be
buried alive in pits.
The father of the three dead children in eastern Turkey, Zeki
Kocyigit, 38, told Reuters they had not known bird flu was still a
threat after authorities said they had successfully suppressed an
outbreak among poultry in the west of the country.
"Nobody warned us... We thought the bird flu had passed," he
said, adding that it was the custom in rural Turkey for families to
kill and eat sick birds.
The virus spreads quickly among chickens, killing them in a day,
and the best way to control it is immediately to slaughter all
poultry in an affected area. This can be difficult in places where,
as in eastern Turkey, people keep small backyard flocks.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies January 9, 2006)
