Death of second Turkish teenager sparks fear of bird flu spreading

A SECOND Turkish teenager died of bird flu yesterday as a virus that has killed 74 people in east Asia claimed its first lives far to the west, on the fringes of Europe and the Middle East.

In a sign the disease may have infected people over a wide area of eastern Turkey, six people from a different province were taken to hospital with suspected bird flu. In all, doctors said 18 patients were under scrutiny and two of them very sick.

“There is no need for panic. This is not an epidemic spread from human to human,” Huseyin Avni Sahin, chief doctor at Van hospital near the Iranian border where all the patients are being treated, told CNN Turk television.