- The number of suspected avian influenza cases in humans
in Turkey has reached at least 32. And the World Health Organisation (WHO)
confirmed that at least two patients, a brother and a sister who died,
had tested positive for avian influenza virus infection.
-
- A British laboratory has found that the two teenagers
who died earlier this week had contracted avian influenza and WHO spokeswoman
Christine McNab in Geneva said scientists were closing in on identifying
that the virus as the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus. "If
it's confirmed, these would be the first human cases outside China and
Southeast Asia," McNab said on Friday [6 Jan 2006] The H5N1 avian
influenza virus has already killed more than 70 [currently 74] people in
East Asia since 2003. [Scientists] are closely monitoring the H5N1 virus
for fear it could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and spark
a pandemic.
-
- [The Turkish] Health Minister Recep Akdag, who was to
travel to Van with a six-member delegation from WHO on Saturday, said Turkish
authorities did not believe the disease had passed from human to human.
"There is no suspicion, for the time being," he said. Birds
in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive for
[the H5N1 virus].
-
- An 11-year-old girl died on Friday [6 Jan 2006] of suspected
bird flu in eastern Turkey days after her teenage brother and sister succumbed
to the disease. Their doctor said they probably contracted the illness
by playing with dead chickens. The British lab also confirmed that another
child had tested positive for avian influenza virus infection, said a Turkish
health ministry official.
-
- http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3D28992006
-
-
- (2)
- Turkey - Children Died Because
- They Entered Hen House First
-
- Anadolu News Agency
- 1-7-6
-
- Professor Mehmet Doganay, the Clinical Microbiology and
Infectious Disease Department Head at Erciyes University, announced that
the children were affected by avian influenza virus first because they
entered the hen houses in the region.
-
- Elaborating the reasons behind the three deaths of the
children, Doganay told children living in villages enter hen houses and
that increases the death ratio among children as they become infected by
the bird flu virus. "People living in Agri have a few chickens and
the hen houses are small. Children enter these hen houses and get infected
by the virus."
-
- (Presumably adults do not normally enter these hen houses
and children are responsible for their maintenance. This could be a reason
for the mortality in children. - Mod.CP)
-
- http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&trh=20060107&hn=28369
-
-
- (3)
- Turkey - Family Who Ate Sick Chicken
- Being Checked For Avian Influenza
-
- 1-7-6
-
- DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) -- Four members of a Turkish family
who fell ill after eating a sick chicken were in hospital on Saturday,
shortly after three children from another family in eastern Turkey died
of avian influenza virus infection, an official said. A poultry trader,
his wife and two children, from the southeastern city Sanliurfa bordering
Syria, felt sick after cutting and eating a sick chicken on Friday, and
were transferred to a nearby hospital.
-
- "The family had eaten a sick chicken but we cannot
say at the moment that they have avian influenza. We have put them in the
emergency room, and they are in quarantine," said Professor Fatma
Sirmatel from Harran University Hospital.
-
-
-
- (4)
- Turkey - Two More Turkish Children
- Confirmed With Avian Influenza
-
- 1-7-6
-
- GENEVA (Reuters) -- The World Health Organisation (WHO)
said on Saturday [7 Jan 2006] that it had confirmed that two children hospitalised
in Turkey had contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, a spokeswoman
said. She said the children, a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, were from
the same region where three other children died from avian influenza this
week. She declined to give any further details.
-
- -- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- The number of confirmed and suspected human cases of
H5N1 avian influenza virus infection is escalating. The total of confirmed
cases appears to be five (all children) and at least another 32 cases are
suspected. As stated previously the situation in Turkey appears to be qualitatively
different from that in East Asia in terms of the number of cases reported
in relation to the population at risk, the mortality in children, and the
simultaneous appearance of suspected cases over a wide area. It may be
that as suggested above that mortality in children is a consequence of
the practise in remote localities in Turkey of rearing domestic fowl in
small hen houses only accessible to children, and that this circumstance
does not necessarily signify a change in virulence or transmissibility
of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. - Mod.CP
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, DVM, PhD- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural
Economics
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
-
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Also my new website:
-
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
-
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