Home>News Center>World
         
 

Child tested for bird flu dies in Turkey
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-02 10:36

ANKARA (Reuters) - A child being tested for possible avian influenza died in a Turkish hospital on Sunday, but doctors said there was no evidence he had fallen victim to the deadly disease which has killed more than 70 people in Asia.

A veterinary worker holds poultry as locals stand next to him in Dogubayazit, a remote, rural area near Turkey's border with Armenia January 1, 2006. Six people in eastern Turkey, four of them children, are being tested for possible avian influenza or bird flu, the state Anatolian news agency said on Sunday. The agency said a 35-year-old woman and a five-year old child had been sent to hospital on Sunday in the eastern city of Van, near the Iranian border.
A veterinary worker holds poultry as locals stand next to him in Dogubayazit, a remote, rural area near Turkey's border with Armenia January 1, 2006. [Reuters]
Five other people from the same region of eastern Turkey, four of them children, are undergoing tests in Van hospital near the Iranian border after exhibiting flu symptoms and failing to react to antibiotics.

"Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, died despite all our efforts to save him," the head doctor at the Van hospital, Huseyin Avni Sahin, told NTV commercial television, adding that the cause of his death was not yet known.

He said a team of experts from the capital Ankara would travel to the region on Monday to investigate.

Turkey, which lies on the path of migratory birds that are believed to spread the virus, has suffered two outbreaks of the highly contagious disease among poultry in the past three months, the latest last week in the eastern province of Igdir.

No humans are known to have contracted the disease in Turkey or Europe, though veterinary experts across the continent have been on alert culling birds and taking other precautionary measures since October outbreaks in Turkey and Romania.

In the Igdir outbreak, the strain has been identified as the H5 type but authorities are conducting further tests to see whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed scores of people in east Asia since 2003 and forced the slaughter of millions of birds.

Turkey has sent samples from Igdir to the World Health Organization and the European Union for more tests.

All six of the Van patients, including the dead boy, are from the district of Dogubayazit, a remote, rural area where farming and animal husbandry are the main form of livelihood.

CULLING OF BIRDS

The Anatolia state news agency quoted local officials as saying they had banned all transportation of poultry in Dogubayazit and that culling of birds would begin shortly as a precautionary measure.
Page: 12



New Year's celebrations around the world
Cold weather grips Germany, France
Panda cub on show at US zoo
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

President Hu calls for peaceful reunification

 

   
 

China Daily select Top 10 Newsmakers 2005

 

   
 

Europe, US uneasy after Ukraine gas cut

 

   
 

Indian PM calls for closer ties with China

 

   
 

Economy grew 9.8% in 2005 - vice minister

 

   
 

Needy people to get more aid in 2006

 

   
  China Daily select Top 10 Newsmakers 2005
   
  Europe, US uneasy after Ukraine gas cut
   
  Child tested for bird flu dies in Turkey
   
  Heavy rain, snow lash Pakistan quake zone
   
  Bush defends eavesdropping amid calls for testimony
   
  Humans display their stupid side to wildlife
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Four children tested for possible bird flu in Turkey
   
Mystery surrounds 7th human infection
   
Ukraine lifts state of emergency in bird flu-affected area
   
Vietnam's central province announces bird flu return
   
Vietnam's central province announces bird flu return
   
Drug to treat human case of bird flu developed
   
Improved farming key to fight bird flu: WHO
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Manufacturers, Exporters, Wholesalers - Global trade starts here.
Advertisement