Bird flu headline advice...

[Guest guest]

....instead, how about, Don't Play with Chicken Heads? KB

In one village near Van, four children from the same family have

apparently come down with the disease after playing with chicken

heads.

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January 9, 2006

Bird Flu Reports Multiply in Turkey, Faster Than Expected

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

ISTANBUL, Jan. 8 - A flurry of new reports of avian influenza in

humans and animals emerged Sunday from various parts of Turkey, and

international health officials said they had come to believe that

the disease had been simmering in the eastern part of the country

for months, even though it was reported there only in late December.

A team of experts, including representatives of the World Health

Organization, accompanied by the Turkish health minister, was

scrambling to determine the full extent of the outbreaks. The group

was heading by bus on Sunday to the worst-hit areas in and around

the city of Van, where the airport was closed by severe weather.

Four children from villages near Van, in remote eastern Turkey, have

now been confirmed by the W.H.O. to be infected with the H5N1 strain

of avian influenza, the first human cases outside of East Asia. Like

many people in those poor villages, the four had had close contact

with birds, health officials said, and probably were infected as a

result.

Turkish officials announced Sunday that tests had confirmed five new

cases of H5N1, two more in Van and three around Ankara - two young

brothers and an elderly man, according to Turan Buzgan, the Health

Ministry's basic sciences director.

The Ankara cases have the most alarming implications because bird

flu had not been previously reported in that part of the country,

and it is a relatively well-off area, where it is not the norm for

humans and animals to live under one roof. The infected boys had

contact with dead wild ducks, and the man with a dead chicken, said

a ministry spokesman.

In addition to the confirmed cases, some 50 other people suspected

of having the disease have been hospitalized, at least 30 in the Van

area and about 20 in Ankara, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

The W.H.O. said it had not been notified of the latest test results,

and so could not confirm the new cases, said Cheng, a

spokeswoman in Geneva. But she added that international scientists

studying the H5N1 virus samples from Turkey had detected no changes

that might make it more contagious to humans. " It seems very much

like the virus we've seen in Western China, " she said.

The cluster of cases in Turkey is extraordinary and a cause for

concern, scientists said. In all of East Asia, where the disease has

been running rampant in birds for years, only about 140 people have

been infected.

New reports of outbreaks among animals across Turkey were also

rapidly increasing. By evening, the Agriculture Ministry said 10 of

81 provinces were reporting the disease in birds, up from 3 just a

few days ago.

" Things are unfolding quickly, but we do not yet know how extensive

the outbreaks are, " said Lubroth of the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization.

" But we now believe and expect they have been going on for some

time, " he said, starting perhaps as early as October or November.

In light of the nine human cases confirmed in the last four days,

the failure of the Turkish officials to detect and publicize animal

outbreaks quickly could have been a deadly oversight.

Humans almost always acquire bird flu through close contact with

sick birds. In areas with known outbreaks, all domestic birds are

supposed to be culled quickly, and farming families in the

surrounding area must take extreme precaution in handling poultry to

prevent human infections. Because there were no earlier reports of

bird flu in the area, the patients in Van and Ankara had no way of

knowing they were at risk.

In one village near Van, Dogubayazit, four children from the same

family have apparently come down with the disease after playing with

chicken heads. Among the six cases in the area confirmed to have

H5N1, two have died. A third also died, although her first test was

negative. Ms. Cheng of the W.H.O. said the test was being repeated

because it is " complicated and sometimes falsely negative, " and

circumstances implicate the H5N1 virus.

Although H5N1 does not now readily spread between humans, scientists

are worried it may obtain that ability through biological processes,

setting off a worldwide pandemic.

The international health officials said that while Turkey had

responded swiftly to its first outbreak of bird flu, which occurred

in the more developed western part of the country, in October,

government officials had been far less efficient in dealing with the

disease in the impoverished east.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting for this article.