Turkish municipality workers try to catch a chicken on the outskirts of Istanbul yesterday. Turkey reported a spike in suspected bird flu cases among people across the country yesterday as fears grew that the deadly disease was sweeping westward towards mainland Europe. - REUTERS
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters):
TURKEY REPORTED a spike in suspected bird flu cases among people across the country yesterday as fears grew that the deadly disease was sweeping westward towards mainland Europe.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said victims appear to have contracted the virus directly from infected birds, allaying fears it was now passing dangerously from person to person.
The Turkish authorities reported 14 people have tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus, including three children from the same family in an impoverished region of eastern Turkey who died last week.
Bird flu is known to have killed 76 people since the latest outbreak emerged in late 2003. Human cases had been confined to east Asia until the virus was identified in Turkey last week.
CHINA'S EIGHTH CASE
China confirmed its eighth human infection from bird flu yesterday, the latest victim a six-year-old boy from the central Hunan province who is being treated in hospital.
Indonesia said local tests showed a 39-year-old man had died from the virus earlier this month after contact with dead chickens. If confirmed, it would be the 12th death in Indonesia.
Worried Turks rushed to hospitals yesterday for tests for the virus, which kills more than half of those it infects.
Thirteen children were among 23 people undergoing tests for bird flu in Istanbul, a teeming city of 12 million which is the country's commercial hub and the gateway to Europe from Asia.
Experts fear the deadly H5N1 strain will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person. If it does so, it could cause a catastrophic pandemic, killing tens of millions of people, because humans lack immunity to it.
