BIRD FLU FEARS SPREAD ACROSS TURKEY
By Baris Atayman
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey reported a spike in suspected bird flu cases among people across the country on Monday, fanning fears the deadly disease was sweeping westward toward mainland Europe.
Thirteen children were among 23 people undergoing tests for bird flu in Istanbul, a teeming city of 12 million which is the country's commercial hub and marks the gateway to Europe from Asia.
The first case of the H5N1 virus jumping from birds to humans outside east Asia occurred last week in an impoverished part of rural eastern Turkey, where three children from the same family died.
The children who died last week almost certainly caught the virus directly from diseased chickens, officials say. Some of the children who fell ill had been playing with the severed heads of infected birds, doctors said.
World health authorities worry that human exposure to the bird flu virus could lead to the emergence of a mutation allowing easier transmission between humans -- and raising the prospect of a global pandemic.
Turkey has confirmed it is treating human cases in three broad areas, the east where the disease first emerged last week, the central region around the capital Ankara, and Black Sea areas in the north.
"The total number of cases in our country is 14 confirmed by laboratory tests, and out of those 14, three children have died," Turkey's Health Minister Recep Akdag told a news conference.
Speaking in the village of Dogubayazit where the three dead children came from, he appealed to people to stay away from poultry, and to keep their children away from the birds too.
He said the number of people being checked is large because people feeling generally ill are checking themselves into hospital just in case.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed only four cases in Turkey, including two deaths. The WHO said other cases reported by Turkey have so far not been verified by laboratory tests.
The Turkish authorities said on Sunday that three people from villages in the Ankara region had tested positive for the virus, the farthest west that any case of bird flu in humans has been reported, and the latest stage in an apparent advance toward major economic centers in Turkey and Europe. Continued ...
The European Union has banned imports of untreated feathers from six countries around Turkey to minimize the risk of bird flu spreading to Europe, the bloc's executive said.
ISTANBUL FEARS, POULTRY RESTRICTIONS
Twenty-three people in the Istanbul area are at various hospitals in the city amid fears they have bird flu, Istanbul governor Muammer Guler said.
"(But) nobody has been confirmed as having bird flu in Istanbul," he told a news conference. He said 13 of the 23 hospitalized were children.
If any of the tests are positive, it would mark the first time that human cases of a disease that originated in China and southeast Asia have been reported so far west.
Istanbul is about 400 km (250 miles) west of Ankara.
The spread of the disease among humans risks hurting the Turkish economy. Russia told its citizens on Sunday to avoid traveling to Turkey, a popular destination for Russians.
Tests on two dead chickens in the Istanbul district of Kucukcekmece indicated they were infected by the bird flu virus, newspapers reported on Monday. Further tests were being carried out.
All open sale of chickens and eggs have been banned across Istanbul. Two of the city's districts have been declared quarantine zones and all poultry there would be destroyed, Guler said.
"I would like to emphasize the general risk posed by (individuals, families) keeping poultry in Istanbul as a whole," he said.
(Additional reporting by Ayse Sarioglu in Ankara and Jeremy Smith in Brussels)
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey reported a spike in suspected bird flu cases among people across the country on Monday, fanning fears the deadly disease was sweeping westward toward mainland Europe.
Thirteen children were among 23 people undergoing tests for bird flu in Istanbul, a teeming city of 12 million which is the country's commercial hub and marks the gateway to Europe from Asia.
The first case of the H5N1 virus jumping from birds to humans outside east Asia occurred last week in an impoverished part of rural eastern Turkey, where three children from the same family died.
The children who died last week almost certainly caught the virus directly from diseased chickens, officials say. Some of the children who fell ill had been playing with the severed heads of infected birds, doctors said.
World health authorities worry that human exposure to the bird flu virus could lead to the emergence of a mutation allowing easier transmission between humans -- and raising the prospect of a global pandemic.
Turkey has confirmed it is treating human cases in three broad areas, the east where the disease first emerged last week, the central region around the capital Ankara, and Black Sea areas in the north.
"The total number of cases in our country is 14 confirmed by laboratory tests, and out of those 14, three children have died," Turkey's Health Minister Recep Akdag told a news conference.
Speaking in the village of Dogubayazit where the three dead children came from, he appealed to people to stay away from poultry, and to keep their children away from the birds too.
He said the number of people being checked is large because people feeling generally ill are checking themselves into hospital just in case.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed only four cases in Turkey, including two deaths. The WHO said other cases reported by Turkey have so far not been verified by laboratory tests.
The Turkish authorities said on Sunday that three people from villages in the Ankara region had tested positive for the virus, the farthest west that any case of bird flu in humans has been reported, and the latest stage in an apparent advance toward major economic centers in Turkey and Europe. Continued ...
The European Union has banned imports of untreated feathers from six countries around Turkey to minimize the risk of bird flu spreading to Europe, the bloc's executive said.
ISTANBUL FEARS, POULTRY RESTRICTIONS
Twenty-three people in the Istanbul area are at various hospitals in the city amid fears they have bird flu, Istanbul governor Muammer Guler said.
"(But) nobody has been confirmed as having bird flu in Istanbul," he told a news conference. He said 13 of the 23 hospitalized were children.
If any of the tests are positive, it would mark the first time that human cases of a disease that originated in China and southeast Asia have been reported so far west.
Istanbul is about 400 km (250 miles) west of Ankara.
The spread of the disease among humans risks hurting the Turkish economy. Russia told its citizens on Sunday to avoid traveling to Turkey, a popular destination for Russians.
Tests on two dead chickens in the Istanbul district of Kucukcekmece indicated they were infected by the bird flu virus, newspapers reported on Monday. Further tests were being carried out.
All open sale of chickens and eggs have been banned across Istanbul. Two of the city's districts have been declared quarantine zones and all poultry there would be destroyed, Guler said.
"I would like to emphasize the general risk posed by (individuals, families) keeping poultry in Istanbul as a whole," he said.
(Additional reporting by Ayse Sarioglu in Ankara and Jeremy Smith in Brussels)
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