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Turkish girl dies from suspected bird flu By Mert Ozkan The Star, 16 Jan 2006
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish girl died on Sunday from suspected bird flu, while her brother was critically ill in hospital after testing positive for the virus. Although the Health Ministry said initial tests on 12-year-old Fatma Ozcan proved negative, doctors still suspect she contracted the deadly disease. If both siblings are confirmed to have bird flu, it would bring the number of human cases in Turkey to 20. The ministry said tests on her brother Muhammet, 5, showed he has the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has already killed three other children in Dogubayazit, the same town in eastern Van province that the Ozcan family come from. The Turkish victims are the first human cases reported outside east Asia since H5N1 reemerged in 2003. The virus mostly affects birds but has infected about 150 people and killed at least 79. The H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds and poultry across large parts of Turkey, particularly in poor villages stretching from Istanbul at the gates of Europe to Van near the Iranian and Iraqi borders. Fatma was buried late on Sunday in a simple funeral attended by family members in the largely-Kurdish town, which has been hardest hit by the bird flu outbreak. Her father fainted at the site of her coffin, a Reuters cameraman said. Several tests are required to establish whether a patient has H5N1. One of the children who died last week initially tested negative. "The girl who was under treatment in Van, Fatma Ozcan, died today of lung failure. She couldn't be saved," the Health Ministry said in a statement. "The first laboratory tests ... came out	negative for bird flu but tests continue." It added: "Her brother who was in the same hospital ... came out positive today." Separately, Van university hospital doctor Huseyin Avni Sahin told reporters: "Fatma Ozcan died today from suspected avian influenza, she came from Dogubayazit five days ago." Sahin said Fatma was initially taken to a hospital in Dogubayazit after developing a fever and a cough after preparing a chicken with her family. She was later taken to Van. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it believes human victims have contracted the disease from close contact with infected poultry, in most cases children playing with birds or helping families kill them for food or sale. Scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into a form that can spread easily between humans, leading to a pandemic. European authorities have stepped up precautions. Syria destroyed birds at a market near its northeastern border with Turkey to try to head off any spread of bird flu. "The city is taking precautions against the spread of bird flu," Kibrael Kourou, an official in the border city of Kamishli, told Syrian state news agency SANA. FIRST CASES OUTSIDE ASIA Most of the dozen or so bird flu patients in Turkey are not in critical condition but are still receiving treatment, with three people released from hospital last week, the WHO said. Two children, 11 and 13, with bird flu-like symptoms were hospitalized in Istanbul after coming into contact with chickens in Gebze town, state news agency Anatolian said on Sunday.	The children were being treated in hospital, but it was not immediately clear whether they had been tested for bird flu. So far, bird flu has been confirmed only in poultry in Istanbul, a city of 12 million people on the edge of Europe. Bird flu has swept across a third of the country since the start of the year. The authorities have culled 600,000 wild birds and poultry to try to contain the crisis. Health officials are going from house to house, particularly in the east of Turkey, searching for birds to cull. Areas where the virus has been detected have been sealed off and people and vehicles leaving have been disinfected. WHO doctors said there was no sign of human-to-human transmission in the Turkish outbreak but tests were ongoing. However, experts from another U.N. body, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), have said the virus risked becoming a constant problem in Turkey as it is in poultry in parts of Asia. Turkey's government has set up a committee to come up with measures to help the $3 billion crisis-hit poultry industry. (Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul and Rasha Elass in Damascus)