Doctors rush to save boy infected with bird flu

Turkish doctors today scrambled to save the life of a five-year-old boy, one of 21 people infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, as laboratories tested samples from dozens more patients across Turkey to detect the virus.

An 11-year-old Turkish girl, suffering from pneumonia and suspected of having bird flu, died today while being transferred from the southeastern city of Mus to a better equipped hospital in the eastern city of Erzurum, said head physician Akin Aktas.