The outbreak of human infections from the deadly strain of bird flu took a significant step closer to Europe on Sunday after three people, two of them children, tested positive for the virus in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Preliminary tests showed that two young brothers and an adult had contracted the H5N1 strain, 960km west of the city of Van where Turkey’s first outbreak of the disease in humans occurred last week.
Last week Fatma Kocyigit (15) and her brother Mehmet Ali (14) from the Kurdish village of Dogubayazit, near Van, became the first bird flu victims in Turkey, and the first human fatalities from the disease outside east Asia. Tests are still being carried out to determine if their 11-year old sister Huly also died from H5N1. If confirmed, the third sibling and the three Ankara cases would bring the total of bird flu cases in humans in Turkey to 10. Seven suspected cases are in hospital.
The deadly strain of bird flu had also been detected in birds in Romania and Croatia, but no human deaths there have been reported.
Doctors who treated the Kocyigit children said that they had almost certainly contracted bird flu by playing with the heads of dead chickens, but world health authorities are concerned that human exposure to the flu could lead to a mutation of the virus, allowing it to pass between humans and raising the prospect of a global pandemic.
A team of World Health Organisation doctors is in Turkey to help investigate the deaths and detect any signs of transmission between humans. Dr Gencay Gursoy, head of the Istanbul Physicians Association, said the situation was grave: ”Turkey and the world are facing the threat of a serious infection.”
According to CNN, two of the three patients in Ankara were taken to hospital after contact with dead wild birds.
Across Turkey, dozens of people who have recently been in close contact with fowl are in hospital with suspected bird flu. Reports of new cases triggered panic on Sunday as the government rushed to counter the threat of further infection.
A delegation of WHO representatives, European health officials and the Turkish Health Minister, Recep Akdag, travelled to Van on Sunday to assess the situation. ”This is a disease in fowl, the people who are in contact with them are at risk,” Akdag said. ”This is the problem which must be addressed.”
Russia’s chief epidemiologist warned against travel to Turkey, a popular destination for Russian holidaymakers.
The Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has appealed to Turks to help in a mass poultry cull to stop the advance of the virus. But in Dogubayazit, home of the Kocyigit children, local people have accused the authorities of being slow to act, and despite the promise of compensation, many farmers in the impoverished regions of eastern Turkey have proved unwilling to sacrifice their only source of income.
A journalist with the Reuters news agency on Sunday reported that chickens still roamed freely in streets of the village, and saw other birds escaping as officials attempted to bury them alive in pits.
Health workers have found it hard to explain the potential dangers to local farmers, whose flocks are often their most valuable possession. Many locals have refused to destroy birds which do not appear to be sick. – Guardian Unlimited Â