Children 'critical' in bird flu outbreak

Two Turkish children who have been tested for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu were in a critical condition today, a health ministry official said.

Eighteen people have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain in Turkey and tests were under way today to determine whether more people, including the two children in hospital in the eastern city of Van, have the virus, said Ali Coskun, a senior Health Ministry official.

“Two patients are in a critical condition,” Coskun said.

“They are not among the 18 confirmed H5N1 cases.”

Coskun identified the children as Fatma Ozcan, 15, and her five-year-old brother Muhammet Ozcan, adding that new test results would be announced this afternoon. It was not clear whether the brother and the sister had been in contact with fowl.

Health officials have said that all 18 people with confirmed H5N1 infection - including three children who died last week in eastern Turkey – apparently had touched or played with birds, and that there was no evidence of person-to-person infection.

Two of the 18 have been discharged from hospital and the World Health Organisation is examining the cases closely as it tracks how the virus may be changing and tries to determine whether the strain may not always be as lethal as earlier believed.

The three fatalities were the first known deaths from the virus outside of Asia, where at least 77 have been killed by bird flu since 2003.

The WHO said on Friday that a 29-year-old Indonesian woman who died this week had tested positive for bird flu, bringing its toll worldwide to at least 79 people.

The WHO has so far only confirmed two out of the three deaths in Turkey were from the H5N1 strain.

Turkish authorities were continuing slaughtering thousands of chickens, turkeys and geese nationwide as a precaution.

The Turkish government on Saturday set up a committee to make urgent recommendations to save the country’s €3.67bn poultry industry, which employs 100,000 people.

At least 455,000 domestic birds have been culled, and bird flu in birds is now confirmed or suspected in 26 of Turkey’s 81 provinces.