Five-year-old boy tests positive for bird flu as Turkish toll hits 19

TURKISH health officials yesterday announced that a five-year-old boy had tested positive for the deadly bird flu strain, increasing the number of infected people in Turkey to 19.

However, the boy's sister, who died earlier in the day, tested negative for the H5N1 strain, according to preliminary results, the ministry said.

"With the positive case today, the number of positive bird flu cases in our country has risen to 19," the Health Ministry said in a statement.