Turkey steps up bird flu fight amid warnings of spread
Bernama, 12 Jan 2006

AFP Photo
An Iranian man disinfects trucks at the Turkish-Iranian border in Gurbulak. Turkey stepped up its fight against bird flu, broadcasting warnings on television and distributing leaflets, amid concerns the deadly virus which has killed two people here so far may spread over its borders.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey stepped up its fight against bird flu, broadcasting warnings on television and distributing leaflets, amid concerns the deadly virus which has killed two people here so far may spread over its borders.
 
 As Indonesia reported another death from bird flu in humans, the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that quicker detection was key to prevent any further spread of the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus.
 
 The deaths in Turkey were the first outside Southeast Asia and China where the disease has killed more than 70 people since 2003, and its neighbours have stepped up measures to try to prevent contamination.
 
 Opening up a new front in the battle, Turkey's agriculture ministry said it had sent leaflets to all of the country's 81 provinces informing people about the disease and how it spreads.
 
 The ministry said all national television networks had started broadcasting spot warnings, urging people to stay away from poultry and wash their hands if they come into contact.
 
 The H5N1 strain has killed two Turks, infected 13 others and rapidly spread across the country since it emerged in a remote eastern region last month.
 
 WHO has said there was no evidence that it had mutated into a form able to jump from human to human -- the feared scenario that could trigger a worldwide pandemic capable of killing millions of people.
 
 Experts say the victims contracted the virus after coming into contact with infected animals, while officials said the patients under treatment in Turkey were mainly in good condition, although two were having difficulties.
 
 Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker was scheduled Thursday to meet health and farm officials from nine provinces to assess the threat.
 
 Veterinary officials pressed on with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of fowl and imposing quarantines on regions with suspect cases, but UN experts have warned the disease may be spreading despite the control measures.
 
 In a WHO-sponsored meeting in Tokyo to discuss measures against a possible pandemic, a doctor on the organisation's bird flu task force stressed the need to identify the virus quicker than the 17 days currently needed.

"It would be too late for containment," Hitoshi Oshitani said.

  Shigeru Omi, WHO's director for the Western Pacific, said the new cases in Turkey showed that the situation "is worsening with each passing month and the threat of an influenza pandemic is continuing to grow every day."

 At UN headquarters in New York, the pointman in the fight against the avian flu outbreak underlined the need for an effective veterinary infrastructure to detect and confirm the virus and cull infected animals.
 
 "If there is delay in getting culling teams out, delay in any part of the chain, even weeks, that could have great implications for the virus to spread," said David Nabarro, the UN coordinator on avian and human influenza on Thursday.
 
 In Indonesia, the health ministry said a 29-year-old woman had died of bird flu, following the death last week of a 39-year-old man.

 Local tests confirmed both died of bird flu and if the results are verified by a WHO-accredited lab in Hong Kong, Indonesia's H5N1 death toll would rise to 13 and the worldwide toll to 80.
 
 The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned Wednesday that the disease risked becoming entrenched in Turkey and spilling into neighbouring countries, naming Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
 
 Iranian and Turkish officials said Iran had closed its border with Turkey near Dogubeyazit where the deaths occurred, and a report in northern Iran said all poultry in the region along the frontier were being destroyed.
 
 Georgia said it was disinfecting all of its border posts.
 
 Authorities in the Kurdish-held north of Iraq banned local trading in live chickens and ordered all vehicles from Turkey to have their tyres sprayed with disinfectant.
 
 The warning also led several European states -- notably those on the route of migratory birds blamed for spreading the virus -- to introduce heightened measures.