01/07 | H5N1 Spreading/WHO Urges Turks Not to Panic

ADMIN NOTE:

Flying Dutchman originally initiated this thread. I was in the process of merging; due to a mistake on my behalf, I merged his thread with my farmer story. Sorry about that, Flying Dutchman!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/business/chicken.php

NEW YORK In an effort to head off an epidemic of dangerous bird flu, chicken farmers in the United States will immediately begin testing nearly all flocks for influenza, an industry trade group has announced.

The National Chicken Council said Thursday that poultry-processing companies that control about 90 percent of the country's chicken production had joined the program. By Jan. 16, they are to start testing about 1.6 million birds a year, a council spokesman said.

A poultry expert, Carol Cardona, said the decision "makes perfect scientific sense" in that it creates a system for spotting mutating influenza strains and could help avert panics over routine types of flu that affect birds.

However, Cardona said, the surveillance program might not speed up farmers' ability to spot the dangerous H5N1 flu strain, which has killed millions of chickens in Asia and 76 humans.

The H5N1 strain is so lethal that if it reaches America, it is likely to be detected quickly because it will probably kill the entire first flock it infects. "There's no producer on this planet that's going to accept 100 percent mortality without notifying someone," said Cardona, a poultry veterinarian at the University of California, Davis.

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the chief of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, W. Ron DeHaven, agreed that "any blip in bird mortality" would alert poultry farmers that the H5N1 strain had arrived. But DeHaven added that "any surveillance in avian influenza is a good thing."

The chicken industry's program is stricter than his department's voluntary one, he said.

Flu is common in birds, and most types produce only respiratory symptoms, leaving the birds safe to eat once they recover. Lethal strains are already legally "notifiable" diseases, meaning that a farmer or a veterinarian who finds them in a flock must notify state veterinarians, who must in turn notify the Agriculture Department.

"But we're not waiting for signs to show up," said Richard Lobb, a council spokesman. Under the program, chicken farmers, most of whom raise flocks under contract with major processors like Tyson's Foods or Pilgrim's Pride, will take swabs or beak samples from 11 chickens in each healthy flock. Any suspicious results found in local labs will be sent on to an Agriculture Department laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation, Lobb said.

Because a flock of broilers goes from hatchlings to slaughter in as little as seven weeks, the industry produces about 150,000 flocks a year, Lobb said. Each will be tested about two weeks before slaughter.

If any H5 or H7 strains of virus are found, the flock will be destroyed on the farm, he said, and nearby flocks will be tested.

There is no H5N1 flu in the Western Hemisphere now, according to health authorities. The most likely possible sources of introduction are thought to be birds smuggled in for the pet trade or for cockfighting, or migratory birds.


, particularly ducks and geese that mingle in the Arctic nesting grounds with birds from Asia and then fly southward along the Pacific Coast in the spring. (However, if the flu mutates into a strain that passes easily between humans, the most likely introduction source will be an airline jet passenger, doctors say.)

Guess I better stock the freezers with chix, turkey etc. again before TSHTF.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>HHS Advises Stocking Up On Supplies for Avian Flu</font>

Reuters
Saturday, January 7, 2006; Page A02
<A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601569.html?nav=rss_health">www.washington.post.com</a></center>
There is no vaccine and drugs are in short supply, but Americans may be able to ride out any pandemic of bird flu if they stock up on supplies and keep their children clean, the government said yesterday.</b>

The Department of Health and Human Services checklist illustrates how little can be done to prevent widespread illness and disruption if H5N1 avian influenza causes a pandemic -- a global epidemic -- this year.

The virus still mostly affects birds, but the deaths of three children in Turkey, if confirmed to have been caused by H5N1, means the virus has now infected people in six countries. The World Health Organization has confirmed 142 cases and 74 deaths from bird flu since 2003.

So far the virus cannot pass easily from person to person, but experts fear that genetic changes could give it that capacity and spark a pandemic that could kill millions. If that happens, HHS said, it could kill 2 million Americans, close schools for days or weeks, and disrupt industry and commerce.

Experts say the best way to wait out a pandemic, which could last months, is to stay away from other people and keep close to home.

"During a pandemic, if you cannot get to a store, or if stores are out of supplies, it will be important for you to have extra supplies on hand. This can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters," the HHS guide says.

HHS's Pandemic Flu Planning Checklist for Individuals and Families, available on the agency's Web site, PandemicFlu.gov, advises:

Teaching children to wash hands frequently and appropriately, covering coughs and sneezes with tissues, and modeling the correct behavior.

Having ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, vegetables, soups, bottled water and cleaning supplies on-hand for an extended stay at home.

Having any nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes, and vitamins.

Talking with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick, or what will be needed to care for them in another home.

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<B><center> January 07, 2006

<font size=+1 color=brown>Turkish family mourns third victims of epidemic </font>

<A href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/07/eng20060107_233600.html">People's Daily Online</a></center>
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey: A third child from the same family in eastern Turkey died of bird flu on Friday as the virus, which has killed 74 people in Asia, reached the threshold of Europe. </b>

Doctors said more than 20 other people, mostly children, were also being treated for suspected bird flu in the hospital where the three children have died.

The latest child to die was Hulya Kocyigit, 11, the sister of Mehmet Ali, a 14-year-old boy who died last weekend, and of Fatma, 15, a girl who died on Thursday.

Their six-year-old brother was also being treated for the disease. However, their parents appeared to be in good health as they received visitors coming to pay condolences at their tiny one-room cottage in the town of Dogubayazit.

The children lived in a remote rural district of eastern Turkey near the Armenian and Iranian borders, in close proximity with poultry similar to the East Asian victims. Neighbouring Azerbaijan will also run tests on suspect dead birds.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has provisionally supported the diagnosis that the children died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu but has said that more tests need to be carried out.

The WHO, which had been expecting human cases after the virus was first detected among wild birds and poultry in Turkey and the Balkans late last year, said the latest cases did not mean a worldwide flu pandemic had become more likely.

Huseyin Avni Sahin, the head doctor at Van hospital where the children died, told CNN Turk that 23 people were now being treated at his hospital for suspected bird flu.

"Fifteen of them are in bed, one is in a critical condition and eight are able to move about. Most of the patients are children," he said.

In Dogubayazit, an anxious crowd gathered outside the state agricultural offices to dump sacks of dead poultry or to ask for their poultry to be culled.

"After the deaths everybody is scared. We are all getting rid of our chickens and nobody dares eat their meat," said local trader Devlet Kaya.

Agriculture officials wearing face masks and protective white suits carried the sacks away to be culled and dumped in the municipal rubbish tip outside the town, where they will be buried in a deep pit and covered with lime.

One official said 3,500 poultry had been culled in the district so far and this figure was expected to reach 5,000 by the time the operation was completed on Saturday. However, officials said that some families were trying to hide their poultry.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in the capital Ankara, rejected opposition accusations that his government had been slow to react to the crisis, but stressed the need to keep the public fully informed of what was happening.

The WHO sent a team of experts to Turkey to help investigate the deaths at Ankara's request and the European Commission said it had sent a veterinary expert to help tackle the outbreak. Samples from Turkish patients were being analysed in Britain.

Erdogan said mosques would also be used to relay information about the disease and the measures needed to fight it during Friday prayers across the largely Muslim country.

Authorities have sent extra supplies of the Tamiflu medicine used against the disease to Van, which is about 800 kilometres east Ankara.

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<B><center>07 January 2006 1031 hrs
<A href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/187007/1/.html">Channelnewsasia.com</a>

<font size=+1 color=green>Tests confirm Turkey's bird flu deaths, WHO urges calm </font></center>
DOGUBEYAZIT, Turkey - Turkish authorities scrambled Friday to tackle an outbreak of bird flu at the edge of Europe after tests confirmed its deadliest strain in three people, including two siblings who died this week. </b>

The World Health Organisation sought to allay panic over the spread of the disease as the Turkish government defended itself against accusations that it had not taken enough preventive action.

Results of the tests, first done in Turkey and confirmed by a laboratory in Britain, were released hours after a third child from the same family died in the east of the country from what officials said was bird flu.

"Only two of the three people who died have tested positive" for the H5N1 strain of bird flu fatal to humans, ministry undersecretary Necdet Unuvar told a press conference in Ankara.

He said one of the dead children's results had been negative, but did not specify which one, and that the third person tested positive was being treated in hospital in the eastern city of Van.

The children were 14-year-old Muhammet Kocyigit, who died in Van hospital on Sunday, followed five days later by his 15-year-old sister Fatma.

Earlier Friday, their 11-year-old sister Hulya succumbed after several days in intensive care, said Huseyin Avni Sahin, the hospital's chief doctor.

The sub-type H5N1 is the strain responsible for the deaths of more than 70 people in Southeast Asia and China since 2003, nearly 40 of whom perished last year alone.

The deaths in Turkey are the first known human fatalities outside Southeast Asia and China.

Unuvar said that apart from the one patient confirmed to be carrying H5N1, 19 other people were hospitalised in Van on suspicion of carrying the disease but their test results were not out yet.

Hospital sources said one of the patients was in a "critical condition."

Local officials in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir meanwhile told AFP that six people, including five siblings aged between six and 10, were brought to a local hospital from nearby Siirt province on suspicion of bird flu.

A WHO spokeswoman urged calm.

The disease has been "contained in one province" in the east of Turkey and "there is no need for excessive panic," Fadela Chaib said in Geneva.

She said a team of five WHO experts were arriving in Van to help officials take the right measures to prevent any spread.

Those experts "will also try to see if we are faced with the first case of human-to-human transmission, which would be the start of a flu epidemic," she said.

Humans only contract bird flu if they come into close contact with infected birds, but scientists fear millions around the world could die if H5N1 crosses with human flu strains to become highly contagious.

The Kocyigit family comes from the impoverished remote town of Dogubeyazit where many families depend on poultry breeding for their livelihoods and live close to the animals.

The Kocyigit children were hospitalised last week after coming into contact with ill chickens living in their house.

The children's uncle Hasan Kocyigit told the Anatolia news agency that the children had cut and eaten a sick chicken themselves, thus exposing themselves to infection.

Meanwhile many Dogubeyazit residents thronged the local hospital, afraid of having caught bird flu, and others accused authorities of failing to properly inform them.

"I ate chicken four days ago and I now feel very sick," said Ozlem Ates, a teenager about 15 years of age, in between bouts of vomiting in the corridors of the town's dilapidated looking hospital. "I fear I have bird flu."

Dogubeyazit is less then 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the town of Aralik, which was quarantined last week after poultry tested positive for H5 bird flu.

As veterinary experts culled poultry and disinfected the areas, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said bird flu has been found in two wild ducks near the Turkish capital.

"This gives us a clue with regards to the origin of the disease," he added, in reference to the theory that migratory birds were responsible.

He told a news conference in the eastern city of Erzurum veterinary experts had so far confirmed five outbreaks in poultry in the eastern provinces of Igdir, Agri and Erzurum, as well as the southeastern province of Sanliurfa. - AFP/ir

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<B><center>January 7 2006
<font size=+1 color=blue>Panic hits Turkish town after bird flu deaths
Three children from same family die of disease </font>
<A href="http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp?ArticleId=92648&CategoryId=3">Bahrain Tribune Daily News</a></center>
DOGUBEYAZIT, Turkey (AFP)

Anxious residents of this remote eastern Turkish town thronged the local hospital yesterday, fearful of having caught bird flu as the deadly disease took its third victim from their impoverished community. </b>

Long queues formed in the corridors of the dilapidated looking hospital in Dogubeyazit, a town of some 40,000 people lying some 35 km from the Iranian border and some 15 km from Mount Ararat, the supposed resting place of Noah’s Ark.

“I ate chicken four days ago and I now feel very sick,” Ozlem Ates, a teenager about 15 years of age, said in between bouts of vomiting.

“I fear I have bird flu,” she added before being taken away by staff for a check.
Three Dogubeyazit children from the same family have so far died from bird flu, becoming the first known human fatalities outside Southeast Asia and China where the disease has killed more than 70 people since late 2003, nearly 40 of them in 2005 alone.

The first victim was 14-year-old Muhammed Ali who died in hospital in the eastern city of Van on Sunday. His 15-year-old sister, Fatma, perished on Thursday, followed a day later by 11-year-old Hulya.

The children had been hospitalised last week after coming into close contact and eating chicken that had fallen sick. According to Press reports, the children played with the heads of dead chicken.

Eating infected chicken once they are cooked does not pose a risk of transmission. Almost all the human cases of bird flu have been in people who have made contact with the virus through the birds’ saliva, secretions and pulverised faeces.

Dogubeyazit is a town where many families depend on poultry breeding for their livelihoods and live closely with their birds, sometimes in the same room, making it harder to contain the spread of the virus.

Veterinary experts have been culling birds since the onset of the threat, aided by some residents who voluntarily handed over their animals, while officials have been disinfecting the tyres of cars coming in and out of the area.

But due to extreme poverty, many have chosen to eat their sick animals rather than bury them in lime pits.

Several residents said Turkish authorities had failed to properly inform the Kurdish-speaking community on what bird flu is and how it spreads to humans, charging that that health officials refused to answer their questions.

“Do you know what we can do against bird flu?,” three students from a vocational medical school asked an AFP photographer on the mud-covered streets of the town where donkeys compete for space with motorised vehicles.

“People are trying to learn what is going on from television, but most do not know Turkish fluently, they speak only Kurdish,” said a high school student who only identified himself as Erhan.

Some, meanwhile, appeared to have taken official warnings to heart. “I do not eat poultry, I stay away from poultry and I do not let passengers with live poultry in their hands into my car,” 30-year-old taxi driver Hakan Capan said.
Others took a more fatalistic approach to the threat.

Nuri Akatar, a 35-year-old self-employed father of eight, said two of his children fell sick after his wife cut up sick poultry and cooked them, but underlined that he was sure it was not bird flu

“We went to the doctor who said we were not in danger. If something happens to a member of my family, there is nothing I can do, I will leave it up to Allah,” he said.

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<B><center>January 07, 2006

<font size=+1 color=purple>No need for panic for human cases of bird flu in Turkey: WHO </font>

<A href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/07/eng20060107_233510.html">People's Daily Online</a></center>
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that there was no need for panic for human cases of bird flu in Turkey.

These cases were appearing in a region that had already reported cases of flu among birds many months ago, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters here. </b>

The situation would be examined to discover if there had been the first cases of transmission between humans, in which case an epidemic could take place. However, this was not yet confirmed. The children concerned had been in contact with sick birds, and this was how they had been contaminated, she said.

She said every country should however have a national plan to deal with the situation, but there was no need for panic, as the bird flu was currently only present in one province in Turkey.

Two Turkish children has died of bird flu. There has been press reports of a third death, but this was not yet confirmed, WHO said.

Turkish authorities had reported 18 suspect cases of hospitalization to WHO, and these came from different families and different areas of Van Province. Samples had been sent to London for tests, and results of these were expected next week, said Chaib.

Following a request by the Turkish Ministry of Health, WHO has sent a team of five experts to Turkey, including an epidemiologist, a virologist, a veterinary epidemiologist, a infection control specialist and a public health official.

The objectives of the mission are, in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Health, to review the current epidemiological situation, including the number of human influenza cases and the areas they come from.

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<B><center>January 07, 2006

<u><font size=+1 color=red>Mexico controls bird flu outbreak: official </font></u>

<A href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/07/eng20060107_233516.html">People's Daily Online</a></center>
Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk said Friday that his country had controlled the outbreak of bird flu in Chiapas state on the Guatemala border, adding there was no risk for human health. </b>

Speaking at a Mexico City press conference, Frenk said that Mexico had been maintaining vigilance for years, making sure that bird flu was kept under control.

This vigilance helped the early detection of outbreak, spotted 15 days ago that has hit 300 birds. There was little risk that the human population could be infected, unlike the virus present in Europe and Asia, he said.

<u>The Chiapas strain is H5N2</u>, different from the deadly H5N1, detected in Europe and Asia. Health authorities in Chiapas had established a quarantine, culled the 300 infected birds, disinfected contaminated areas and compensated affected farmers, Frenk said.

Frenk said that there was not risk to people eating Mexican eggs or chicken, and repeated that Latin America was free of bird flu in humans.

In Guatemela on Friday, the agriculture authorities said they had increased epidemiological vigilance at the frontier to prevent any possible outbreak.

Elsewhere on Friday, a British laboratory confirmed that two Turkish teenagers died of the H5N1 flu, the first two deaths outside of Asia.

More than 70 people have died from H5N1 since 2003, and nearly 70 more have been infected, but survived. The bulk of those affected worked closely with birds. Vietnam, with more than 40 cases, is the country worst affected.

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<B><center>January 07, 2006

<font size=+1 color=brown>Bird flu detected in two wild ducks near Ankara</font>

<A href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/07/eng20060107_233515.html">People's Daily Online</a></center>
Turkish Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Mehdi Eker said on Friday that bird flu had been detected in two wild ducks near a dam lake in Nallihan town of capital Ankara.

Eker told reporters that Turkey was taking all necessary measures to contain bird flu which has claimed three lives of the same family in eastern Turkey.</b>

He said they detected bird flu in 10 centers in Turkey, stressing that five of those cases were definitely bird flu.

"So far 14,000 birds have been culled, the quarantine measures are being implemented strictly. People should not touch sick birds, " Eker said.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Necdet Unuvar said that Health Minister Recep Akdag and World Health Organization (WHO) experts on Saturday would investigate bird flu cases in Van province in eastern Turkey, where more people have been tested positive for bird flu.

Saying that British labs also confirmed that three siblings, named Hulya, Mehmet Ali and Fatma Kocyigit, died of bird flu in Van, Unuvar said that another child was currently hospitalized suspected of carrying H5N1.

Meanwhile, Environment and Forestry Minister Osman Pepe said on Friday that hunting has been banned in eastern and southeastern Anatolia regions as of Friday.

Pepe said that the ban was imposed for an indefinite period of time since winged animals might be infected with bird flu.

It is feared that bird flu, which currently jumps from birds to human, can mutate into a disease that can easily pass among human, which would trigger a global pandemic.

The H5N1 strain has so far killed over 70 people since it was first reported in Asia in 2003.

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<B><center>7 January 2006, 02:03 GMT

<font size=+1 color=brown>Panic hits Turkey bird flu town</font>

<A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4589824.stm">www.news.bbc.co.uk</a></center>
Residents of the eastern Turkish town hit by a fatal outbreak of bird flu in humans have besieged a local hospital seeking treatment for symptoms.

Three children from Dogubeyazit have died this week, at least two of them from the virulent H5N1 strain. </b>

Despite no evidence that the disease has begun to spread between humans, locals have sought treatment at a poorly-equipped hospital in the town.

Turkey will speed up a poultry cull this weekend to contain the virus.

The World Health Organisation has attempted to play down fears of the disease, as Turkish officials sought to defend themselves from accusations they were slow to act.

Bird flu

A WHO spokeswoman in Geneva said the bird flu outbreak had been contained in one Turkish province and there was "no need for excessive panic".

Twenty people remain in hospital in Van, a larger city in eastern Turkey, under treatment for suspected bird flu.

Close contact

Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, and his two sisters Fatma, 15, and Hulya, 11, have all died this week.

Turkey fights back
Tests carried out in a UK laboratory confirmed that Mehmet Ali and Fatma died from the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 70 in south-east Asia and China.

The children's family kept poultry at their home in Dogubeyazit, close to the Iranian border in Van province.

All four children developed symptoms including a high fever, coughing and bleeding in the throat.

Doctors said they had been playing with the heads of chickens who had died of bird flu.

Relief efforts

Dogubayezit has been placed under quarantine and no people or animals are allowed to move in or out of the district, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Some 3,500 birds have been culled so far in the Van region and extra supplies of Tamiflu medicine have been sent.

However, the cull of all winged animals is only half complete almost a week after the first fatality, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford, in Dogubayezit.

"We don't expect a pandemic or anything like that in Turkey but there is a real risk for people who are in close contact with fowl," said Health Minister Recep Akdag.

Experts from the WHO and the EU have been sent to Turkey to help them deal with the outbreak.

Turkish Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker says at least four new outbreaks of bird flu in poultry have been confirmed in the eastern provinces of Igdir and Erzurum and the south-eastern province of Sanliurfa.

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<B><center>Flu Pandemic Guide: Stock Up on Basics

<font size=+1 color=green>Government Urges Americans to Stockpile Food, Water, and Medicines in Case of Outbreak </font>

By Todd Zwillich
<A href="http://www.webmd.com/content/article/117/112455?src=RSS_PUBLIC">WebMD Medical News </a></center>
Jan. 6, 2006 - The federal government on Friday urged Americans to stockpile food and medicine in an effort to prepare for what officials warn could be widespread disruptions in the event of an influenza pandemic.

A flu pandemic is a global outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus causes serious human illness and spreads easily from person to person, according to the CDC.</b>

Experts inside and outside the government have warned of a medical crisis if, for example, a highly pathogenic virus like the H5N1 bird flu virus begins to infect large numbers of humans. But they have also warned that a flu pandemic would likely interrupt nearly every aspect of normal life, as schools, workplaces, grocery stores, and even utilities shut down.

Gaining 'Peace of Mind'

Personal stockpiles of food, water, and basic medicine would do little to stop the spread of a pandemic virus, experts acknowledge. But it could help lessen the social impact if services and institutions are debilitated, officials say.

"Our goal here is to help people prepare, not to panic," says Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which urged the actions Friday. "Through preparation people can gain peace of mind knowing they've done what they can do."

The recommendations in many ways echoed calls in 2003 by Tom Ridge, then the Secretary of Homeland Security, for families to prepare for a potential terrorist attack. The campaign faced some ridicule when Ridge called on Americans to purchase duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal their homes against biological or chemical weapons.

The HHS on Friday issued a checklist that calls on individuals to plan for transportation disruptions as well as work and school closings. It also calls on households to store supplies of nonperishable food, water, and medicines for use in the event of an outbreak.

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>10 Member Familial Cluster in Turkey Raises Pandemic Concerns</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01060604/H5N1_Turkey_Cluster_Ozkan.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 6, 2006</center>
As H5N1 bird and human outbreaks spread across Turkey, the initial clusters provide compelling evidence that H5N1 spread to humans has become more efficient. Although disease onset dates have not been released for most patients, media reports provide somewhat of a chronology of admission dates for the Ozkan family. The admission dates, names, and ages of family members are:</b>

January 4

Hatice (15)
Aysegul (9)
Yusuf (3)

January 5

Rumeysa (1)
Mehmet (13)
Ahmet (11)
Mustafa (6)

January 6

Refica (33)
Hakan (15)
Rukiye (?)

The disease onset dates for the first three family members admitted would be most useful, because it is likely that there was a delay between disease onset and admission. The other seven family members probably developed symptoms closer to their admission date, because the first three family members had already been hospitalized and the news of the other cases from the same village was likely known.

The 10 family members, if confirmed to be H5N1 positive, would double the previous number of confirmed H5N1 patients from the same family, which was a family of five from Haiphong in March of 2005.

More details on the clinical picture, including disease onset dates, would be useful, but this large cluster, coupled with the clustered nature of the other patients admitted to the same hospital in Van, indicates H5N1 transmission to humans has become more efficient.

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<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Large Familial Clusters In Turkey Raise Pandemic Concerns</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01060602/H5N1_Turkey_Clusters.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 6, 2006</center>
Yusuf Tunç (5), Sümeyya Pamuk (10), Semra Topçu (35) and Orhan Topçu'ya (38) also kuş gribi (bird flu) treatment carried out begin. Yesterday also Erciş Devlet Hastanesi'nden Türkan Sökmen (59), Doğubayazıtlı Özcan Ailesi'nden mother Refika (33), child Hakan (15), Rümeysa (1), Hatice (15), Ayşegül (9), Yusuf (3), Mehmet (13), Ahmet (11), Mustafa (6), sick chicken meat yedikleri (seven-?) gram? Ümran (17), Zehra (14), Riba (12), Mahmut (5) and Kübra Işık (4) siblings also Van'da treatment altına alındı. Coop bir (together?) chicken to die Yavuz (6) and Ozan Gültepe (5) siblings also</b>

The above machine translation of the H5N1 positive patients in Van indicate that most or all of the cases are from familial clusters, one of which appears to have 10 members.

Large and frequent familial clusters signal efficient H5N1 transmission, either from a common source or human-to-human transmission. Information on disease onset dates would help distinguish the two possibilities, but the clusters indicate transmission to humans is efficient, regardless of source.

This increase efficiency is cause for concern because of the increasing number of poultry outbreaks in Turkey, as well as the temporal relationship with human cases.

These data suggest H5N1 in the migratory birds has changed and this change is causing simultaneous outbreaks over large regions of Turkey.

It is likely that this version of H5N1 will spread beyond the borders of Turkey, significantly increasing the number of countries reporting human H5N1 cases.

Since these human cases have just begun, the stability of this version of H5N1 in birds remains unclear. However, the efficient transmission to humans allow for rapid tracking of this version of H5N1.

Sequence data from H5N1 isolates from the associated birds and people would be useful.

1/07: H5N1: Migrating Birds in China; Turkey Updates

from www.sciencedaily.com

Migrating Birds Spread Flu In China

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The recent outbreak of bird flu in chickens in China's southwestern Dazhu county was blamed by federal officials on birds migrating from the north.

Su Lin of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Health told the Xinhua news agency Dazhu is where migratory birds from North China such as white cranes stop before flying further south to spend the winter.

"It is most likely to have been spread by migratory birds, since no bird flu has been reported in other parts of Sichuan or neighboring Chongqing Municipality," said Su.

He said that nobody has been infected with the H5N1 virus in Dazhu, as blood tests of the 16 people in close contact with the dead poultry were negative.

Dazhu was placed under quarantine isolation for 21 days, and the Ministry of Agriculture has sent an expert team to Dazhu to guide control efforts, the report said.

Since first appearing in Southeast Asia in 2003, the H5N1 flu virus has killed about 70 people.

Turkish family who ate sick chicken checked for flu
07 Jan 2006 12:34:37 GMT

Source: Reuters

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Four members of a Turkish family who fell ill after eating a sick chicken were in hospital on Saturday, shortly after three children from another family in eastern Turkey died of bird flu, an official said.

Poultry trader Ibrahim Sakat, his wife and two children, from the southeastern city Sanliurfa bordering Syria, felt sick after cutting and eating a sick chicken on Friday, and were transferred to a nearby hospital.

"The family had eaten a sick chicken...but we cannot say at the moment that they have bird flu. We put them in the emergency room, and they are in quarantine," said Professor Fatma Sirmatel from Harran University hospital.

U.S. zoos to act as sentinels for bird flu
06 Jan 2006 20:33:08 GMT

Source: Reuters

CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - American zoos will act as sentinels to track the spread of avian flu if the lethal virus arrives on U.S. shores, zoo officials said on Friday.

Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo will bring together about 30 public health and zoo officials on Monday to organize the effort, zoo spokeswoman Kelly McGrath said.

"The reason zoos make good sentinels is because zoos are in every (U.S.) state," she said. "The idea is to be able to project its (avian flu's) path, to track the way the disease is moving."

Zoos played a similar role at the outset of the West Nile virus outbreak a few years ago, she said.

In 2002, West Nile virus killed three Lincoln Park Zoo birds -- two red-breasted geese and a turkey vulture -- and infected two bald eagles that survived.

While zoo animals are somewhat isolated, they are exposed to the public and just as susceptible to disease as any bird, McGrath said.

Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the departments of Agriculture and Interior will attend the four-day meeting in Chicago, McGrath said.

Avian flu outbreaks have infected birds primarily in Asia and some in Europe, resulting in the extermination of flocks.

More than 70 people, including three recently in Turkey, have died from the illness. Health authorities fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass from human to human and trigger a pandemic.

Turkey PM promotes cull after bird flu kills three
07 Jan 2006 13:37:45 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Umit Bektas

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged people not to hide poultry to escape bird flu culls while residents in the east where three children died of the disease pleaded on Saturday for more help.

A team of World Health Organisation (WHO) doctors who flew to Turkey to investigate the first human bird flu fatalities on the threshold of Europe were stuck in Ankara due to fog.

The European Commission said its laboratory at Weybridge, England, had confirmed that the strain of bird flu found in Turkey is the deadly H5N1 form of the virus.

The virus killed 74 people in east Asia before it claimed the lives of the three children from the same family in eastern Turkey this week. Some of the victims had played with the severed heads of infected birds, doctors said.

Experts plan to study the outbreak for signs the virus was passing from person to person, mutating into a form easily transmitted among humans. Experts say a pandemic among humans could kill millions and cause massive economic losses.

Erdogan urged people not to hide their poultry and promised compensation. He said the government was taking all necessary measures and allocating funds to combat the spread of the disease, CNN Turk reported.

"Peoples' losses will be compensated. Nobody will be allowed to suffer losses," he told reporters on Friday.

"We should not panic. Our people should not be making efforts to hide chickens, turkeys or geese," he said.

GOVERNMENT NOT DOING ENOUGH

The Ministry of Environment and Forests banned hunting of all wild birds throughout Turkey and asked hunters to avoid contact with them.

Despite government efforts, residents complain that even after they ask for assistance, chickens are not being taken away for days. Some say they do not have money to pay for trucks to bring poultry to the city centre for culling.

"We apply to the officials but they don't come to take our chickens. I cannot bring them myself. I have no money," a middle-aged man said in Dogubayazit, the town where the dead children lived, near the Armenian and Iranian borders.

A Reuters reporter saw chickens still walking on the streets, and some escaping just before they were carried in large bags to be buried alive in pits.

Turkish television reported that a prosecutor in the eastern town of Kars had begun an investigation into culling poultry by burning in holes because causing pain to animals is illegal.

Four members of a family from Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border, who fell ill after eating a sick chicken, were in hospital for observation, an official said.

A family of seven people, including five children, from the eastern town of Ardahan, was sent to hospital in Istanbul on Saturday, also on bird flu suspicions.

Elsewhere, people say hospitals are overcrowded and doctors do not examine and treat them adequately, sending them home after brief examinations.

SCEPTICAL

In some areas, trade in poultry continued as normal and people expressed doubts the disease even exists.

A Reuters stringer in southeastern Diyarbakir said people still slaughter chickens on the streets in front of children.

"We don't have bird flu in this city," a man who bought a turkey from a street seller said, showing the bird to cameramen.

A poultry seller complained the government pays 7-9 lira ($5.25-$6.75) compensation for a turkey, which is normally sold for 30 lira in the market, and that is why they do not want to give their poultry to officials for culling.

"These bird flu rumours are produced intentionally to raise lamb sales. There is no problem with our poultry," a street seller said.

There were two Bird Flu threads for the day, so they were merged.

Thanks pixmo--I went back several pages and couldn't find Dutch's. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Over 50 Hospitalized Suspect H5N1Patients in Turkey</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01070601/H5N1_Turkey_Suspect_50.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 7, 2006</center>
The family traveled from Igdir, they had eaten a sick chicken, one of children has a suspicious lesion in the lungs .. Parents seem to be ok, rest of the children are sick in various degrees</b>

Six children were also being tested for suspected bird flu in the city of Diyarbakir, hundreds of kilometres southwest of Dogubayazit.

The above comments on media stories describe 13 more patients admitted to hospitals in Istanbul and Diyarbakir. The family members had contact with birds in Igdir or Hilvan in Sanliurfa, where there have been reported H5N1 outbreaks in poultry. These 13 patients, along with more admissions to hospitals in eastern provinces, brings the total number of hospitalized patients to over 50.

Media reports also indicate that 7 patients in Van had bird flu symptoms that include bleeding from the throat, suggesting these are advanced cases. These descriptions are consistent with media reports indicating the initial admissions to Van had these symptoms. The early admissions in Van included members of the Ozkan family. This cluster of 10 people would be the largest cluster on record if H5N1 is confirmed.

The large number of cases and clusters are cause for concern.
.

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>New Bird Flu Cases in Turkey Put Europe on 'High Alert'</font>

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: January 7, 2006
<A href="http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/europe/07turkey.html&OP=2d1ab9bdQ2FrQ7BM0rQ7D9aVi99F4r4vvyrvQ2FrvQ26rfLFMiLQ5CFf9LQ5CYrMAi9GMrvQ26FAijMb!5FdY">www.nytimes.com</a></center>
ROME, Jan. 6 - Health officials in Europe said Friday that they were on "high alert" as a third child in eastern Turkey was confirmed to have bird flu and more than two dozen people there were under observation at a local hospital, an unusual cluster of human cases that raised the possibility that the virus had become more contagious to humans.</b>

The officials have watched with concern over the last four months as the strain of bird flu known as H5N1 has moved steadily from East Asia to the edge of Europe, first in birds and now probably in humans. A laboratory in England confirmed for the first time on Friday that the three children in Turkey, two of whom died, had had the H5N1 virus. The tests pointed to the most serious N1 strain, health officials said. Further testing on samples from them and other patients was under way.

"I'm not sure we've seen a cluster like this in terms of numbers, and certainly it's a concern," said Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the Division of Epidemic Preparedness at the World Health Organization. "Is the virus being transmitted more easily from birds to humans, or even from humans to humans? We need to put all the pieces together before we can come to conclusions."

International health authorities say the Turkish victims - the first outside of East Asia - probably became ill after close contact with sick or dead chickens infected with the virus. Reports in the Turkish press said that two siblings who died, Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, and his sister, Fatma, 15, had been playing catch with the heads of dead chickens.

While the H5N1 virus does not now readily infect humans or pass between them, scientists worry that it may acquire that ability through naturally occurring processes, a development that could ultimately set off a worldwide flu epidemic.

Scientists point out that the cluster of cases in Turkey does not indicate that such a mutation has occurred. Even if additional cases of bird flu are confirmed there, some scientists say, they probably stemmed from people handling the same sick birds - not from a mutated virus that passed between humans.

Still, the W.H.O. and the European Commission were alarmed enough to dispatch a joint team of scientists to eastern Turkey this week. Both entities also said they did not believe that people in Europe were at risk, unless they had had contact with poultry in disease zones.

"Europe is on high alert," said Christine McNab, a spokeswoman in the Director General's office of the W.H.O. "But unless there is new information, the risk still lies with people who are in contact with sick birds." In Europe, Romania and Croatia have reported outbreaks.

The full extent of the cluster is unclear because tests for H5N1, which are difficult to perform, are still under way in England. Beyond the Kocyigit siblings, another unrelated boy was also found to be infected. He is severely ill in the same hospital where the siblings were treated, in the city of Van.

Two other children in the Kocyigit family were also recently hospitalized with severe respiratory disease. One died Friday, and the other is recovering, although tests have not yet confirmed their diagnoses.

An additional 26 people are in the Van hospital under observation for possible bird flu, the Turkish Anatolia news agency reported, though many will presumably turn out to have lesser ailments.

"There is naturally panic among locals who believed for many years that there was no harm in eating dead poultry," Prof. Ahmet Faik Oner, head of the Van University Hospital child care unit, said in a telephone interview. "Now is the time to change their habits without any delay in light of these casualties."

Until now, all known 142 cases of human bird flu have been in East Asia. Most have been lone cases in families, and about half of those infected have died.

Scientists in Cambridge, England, are examining virus samples from Turkey for genetic changes from the Asian variant that could make the virus more capable of jumping from birds to humans. The European Commission, which banned poultry imports from Turkey in October, after the first outbreak in chickens there, said that it was "closely monitoring the situation."

Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, who has treated more than a dozen people with bird flu, said the Turkish cluster was "worrying" but in no way meant that a flu pandemic was imminent or inevitable.

Dr. Farrar said that he, too, had seen a few tiny clusters of people with H5N1 in Vietnam and had concluded that they were probably caused by "common exposure" to the same infected birds.

"In rural communities, whether in Vietnam or Turkey, people live very close to poultry," Dr. Farrar said. "When a bird is prepared for a meal, the whole family is involved."

He also said that many patients now in Turkish hospitals would ultimately test negative for the disease.

"It's a horrible virus, but in the early stages it's like any pneumonia," he said. "When people are scared they have a lower threshold for going to the hospital. It's a natural reaction."

At the very least, the outbreak underscored serious gaps in the world's strategy for addressing this emerging disease. For one thing, even though chickens were dying, there were no reports of H5N1 in the remote village of Dogubayazit when the Kocyigit children fell ill.

"Especially in rural areas, we need to do more to get the message out," said Ms. Cheng, the W.H.O. spokeswoman.

Nuthatch said:

Turkish family who ate sick chicken checked for flu
07 Jan 2006 12:34:37 GMT

Source: Reuters

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Four members of a Turkish family who fell ill after eating a sick chicken were in hospital on Saturday, shortly after three children from another family in eastern Turkey died of bird flu, an official said.

Poultry trader Ibrahim Sakat, his wife and two children, from the southeastern city Sanliurfa bordering Syria, felt sick after cutting and eating a sick chicken on Friday, and were transferred to a nearby hospital.

"The family had eaten a sick chicken...but we cannot say at the moment that they have bird flu. We put them in the emergency room, and they are in quarantine," said Professor Fatma Sirmatel from Harran University hospital.

Click to expand...

I'm bustin to hear follow-up on this. I've read over and over that if the bird is fully cooked that it isn't infectious

baw

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<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Now bird flu is diagnosed in Turkey's west: 45 under observation</font>

Jan 7th - 10:20am
<A href="http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=106&sid=667091">www.wtopnews.com</a></center>
Istanbul (dpa) - Officials in the western Turkish province of Ankara imposed a ban on bird trade Saturday after bird flu was diagnosed among wild ducks in the region.

Tests on the remains of two wild ducks found dead on a reservoir showed that the birds had died from the deadly disease. </b>

The latest findings have caused concern that the virus is spreading to the west of the country following initial outbreaks in the east which claimed the lives of three humans.

At least five separate areas in eastern and southeastern Turkey have already been affected by bird flu outbreaks.

Around 14,000 birds have been destroyed in massive culling operations and a ban on hunting wild birds imposed in these regions earlier in the week has now been extended nationwide.

A total of ten infected poultry farms have been confirmed in six of Turkey's 81 provinces, the agriculture ministry said Saturday.

Throughout Turkey at least 45 humans are being treated in hospital with suspected cases of bird flu. Thirty people are under observation at a hospital in the eastern city of Van where three children from the same family died during the week from confirmed cases of bird flu.

Among the suspected cases are seven members of the same family, who are being treated in an Istanbul hospital for bird flu-like symptoms after travelling to an infected area in eastern Turkey.

Meanwhile the World Health Organization has confirmed that at least two of the three fatalities in eastern Turkey were infected with the H5N1 influenza strain - the deadly bird flu virus. The findings match the results of tests carried out in Turkish laboratories, according to Turkey's Health Ministry.

An eleven-year-old girl who died Friday did not test positive for the strain. However her 15-year-old sister who died Thursday and a 15-year-old brother who died last Sunday were carrying the H5N1 variety.

The same strain has also been identified in a patient being treated in the hospital in Van. Health Minister Recep Akdag pointed out, however, that apart from this case no other patient has received a definite bird flu diagnosis, and none are reported to be in a critical condition.

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Bird Flu Registered in Two New Turkish Provinces</font>

7 January 2006 | 14:31
<A href="http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?r=1&&catid=127&&ch=0&&newsid=80153">FOCUS News Agency </a></center></b>
Ankara. The existence of the dangerous for the humans bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain was registered in another two Turkish provinces, the Turkish Minister of Healthcare Mehdi Eker announced, AFP reports.
This fact was found out through tests taken from pigeons in the provinces Erzidzhan and Bitlis. The analysis confirmed the presence of the virus.

<B><center>=========</b></center>

<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Fourth Case of Person Infected with Bird Flu in Turkey</font>

7 January 2006 | 14:40
<A href="http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=127&ch=0&newsid=80154&PHPSESSID=o38cdc2c00li0s4u5p85e3jji5"> FOCUS News Agency </a></center></b>
Ankara. A fourth case of a person infected with the bird flu virus was registered in Turkey, AFP reported, citing the Turkish Minister of Healthcare Recep Akdag.
Earlier this week three children, who used to work in a poultry farm, died in the Eastern parts of Turkey. Two of them were known to have been infected with the deadly H5H1 strain of the bird flu virus.
Meanwhile centres of bird flu infection were discovered in two provinces in Eastern Turkey, AFP reported, citing Turkish Minister of Agriculture Mehdi Eker.

<B><center>========</B></center>

<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>EU Identifies Turkey Bird Flu Type as Lethal H5N1</font>

7 January 2006 | 14:13
<A href="http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=127&ch=0&newsid=80151"> FOCUS News Agency </a></center></b>
Ankara. The strain of bird flu that caused a recent outbreak in Turkey is the deadly H5N1 type, confirming the spread of the killer virus to Europe's outer fringes, the European Commission said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
"The European Commission has been informed that test results from the EU laboratory at Weybridge confirmed that the avian influenza virus, which has recently caused an outbreak in poultry in eastern Turkey, is a high pathogenic type H5N1", the statement claims.

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<B><center>Europe | 07.01.2006
<A href="http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1849571,00.html">www.dw-world.de</a></center>
<center><font size=+1 color=red>WHO Experts in Turkey to Assess Bird Flu Threat to Europe </font></b>
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
<B><font size=+0 color=blue>WHO experts on the ground in Turkey are assessing the threat </font></center>

World Health Organization experts were in Turkey Saturday to assess the threat to Europe in the wake of a number of human deaths from the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.</b>

World Health Organization experts were in Turkey Saturday to look for any signs of much-feared human-to-human transmission of bird flu after the first deaths from the disease outside east Asia were confirmed in the east of the country.

The experts were to visit the hospital in Van city where three siblings from the same family died after coming in close contact with sick chickens, and review the situation in Dogubeyazit town, where the children lived, said Health Minister Recep Akdag, who was accompanying the delegation.

"There is no suspicion at the moment over a possible human-to-human transmission," Akdag said at Ankara airport, from where the group was to fly out to Van, Anatolia news agency reported.

Fear of human-to-human contagion raises pandemic concerns

Currently, humans are thought only to contract bird flu if they come into close contact with infected birds, but scientists fear that millions around the world could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become highly contagious.

The deaths in Turkey, the first known human fatalities outside Southeast Asia and China, brought the threat of a pandemic to Europe's doorstep.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Turkish authorities are battling to contain the outbreak -- and the ensuing panic.
A WHO spokeswoman said Friday that experts from the organization would help Turkish officials take the right measures to prevent any spread. "The initial hypothesis we are working on is that the children affected had dealt with diseased chickens and were thus infected," Fadela Chaib said.

But the experts "will also try to see if we are faced with the first case of human-to-human transmission, which would be the start of a flu epidemic," she added.

H5N1 strain rife in affected area, health officials claim

Tests done in Turkey and confirmed by a laboratory in Britain established that two of the victims carried the lethal H5N1 virus, a senior health ministry official said Friday.

He said one of the dead children's results had been negative, but did not specify which one, and that a third person who tested positive was being treated in a hospital in Van.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The H5N1 strain was confirmed in at least one patient being treated in Van.
Apart from the one patient confirmed to be carrying H5N1, 19 others, mostly children, have been hospitalized in Van on suspicion of carrying the disease.

Akdag said that despite several suspicious cases in other parts of the country, "there are no probable or highly probable (human) cases in Turkey other than the patients in Van."

The sub-type H5N1 is the strain responsible for the deaths of more than 70 people in Southeast Asia and China since 2003, nearly 40 of whom succumbed last year alone.

Three siblings die after weather forced birds to be housed in home

The first of the Turkish victims, Mehmet Kocyigit, 14, died Sunday, followed five days later by his 15-year-old sister Fatma. Their sister Hulya, 11, succumbed Friday after several days in intensive care. The condition of a fourth sibling, a six-year-old boy, was reportedly improving.

It is thought that the bad winter conditions in the area forced the family to bring their infected poultry flock into the home.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Medics and family members carry the coffin of Mehmet Kocyigit.
The Kocyigit siblings and most of the other patients in Van were from the remote town of Dogubeyazit, less then 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the town of Aralik, at the Armenian border, which was quarantined last week after poultry tested positive for bird flu.

As veterinary experts culled fowl and disinfected the areas, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker announced Friday that bird flu has been found in two wild ducks near the capital Ankara, nearly 1,000 kilometers (700 miles) west of the infected area.

The discovery raised fears that migratory birds may be spreading the disease across the vast country, as experts had warned.

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<center><b>Istanbul

<font size=+1 color=green>Hospital Staff Works 7/24 for Bird Flu Cases </font>

By Yahya Oylek, Fettah Erdurur, Van
Published: Saturday, January 07, 2006
<A href="http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&&alt=&&trh=20060107&&hn=28370">zaman.com </a></center>
Head Doctor at Van Yuzuncuyil Research Hospital Associated Professor Huseyin Avni Sahin announced they are working around the clock with a 24 person expert team to fight against the bird flu outbreak.</b>

"Our doctors are making a great deal of sacrifices. Admission is allowed to the hospital at any time during the day," he said. “The staff is in sorrow for losing three patients to the bird flu and they are doing everything to fight against the outbreak.” There is no patient hooked up to the respiratory system, the doctor gave the good news, and the child service can serve up to 35 people.

Since 31 December 2005, 51 people have been hospitalized Sahin informed and 18 of them were in-patients. Three of the 18 in-patients have died due to the bird flu, while 15 are still under treatment.

Other patients coming with the suspicion of bird flu were treated as out-patients because they were diagnosed with no bird flu virus and there was no need to take them in.

People in the Eastern Turkey need to be aware about the disease, Sahin reminded. The bird flu could be prevented by exterminating all winged animals, not just the killing of poultry animals by individuals.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Recklessly Killing Birds Encourages Epidemic </font>

By Halis Tatli, Fettah Erdurur, Hakkari, Van
Published: Saturday, January 07, 2006
<A href="http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&&alt=&&trh=20060107&&hn=28366">zaman.com </a></center>
Owners of winged animals are experiencing a great deal of anxiety due to the deaths from the bird flu in Eastern Turkey. </b>

These concerns have caused unique scenes to surface in the region. The fear of becoming infected with the bird flu has initiated some people to destroy large numbers of poultry on their own instead of calling officials. Oblivious killing of animals is posing a high risk of helping the virus to spread.

The bird flu death toll increased to three when another patient diagnosed with the disease died while receiving medical treatment in the eastern Turkish city of Van.

The other 15 patients are still receiving medical treatment. The country is on alert for the bird flu virus which easily spreads among birds.

Large numbers of these animals were exterminated in eight cities. Some people, however, are destroying the animals on their own rather than calling experts to deal with the situation, creating a higher risk of turning the disease into an epidemic.

With the fear of being infected by the bird flu virus, people are also open to the danger of the bird flu even if they do not eat chicken meat simply by touching the animal. The experts urge for owners of diseased animals to notify the officials.

Omer Faruk Tatli, a resident in the Merzan district of Hakkari, neglected to ask for the Provincial Agriculture Office to appoint a group of experts.

Unable to make sense of why his poultry animals were dying one after the other, Tatli became worried over the bird flu reports. He was far more frightened at hearing that the disease was spreading by the migrant birds, since in recent days a large group of birds were flying over the area he was living in. So, Tatli took a decision to kill all his chickens. Catching the chickens one by one, Tatli and his mother destroyed the animals in front of the house. The Office of Agriculture insists public should avoid having direct contact with the birds, leaving the killing to the experts instead.

The animal owners will be financially compensated for the killing of their animals, said Mehmet Mehdi Eker, the Minister of Agriculture.

The owners will be paid five new Turkish liras per chicken. For the killing of one goose, the amount will be 10, and for the killing of one turkey, 15 liras will be paid in compensation.

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<b><font size=+1 color=brown><center>'Children Died as They Entered Hen House First'</font>

By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Kayseri
Published: Saturday, January 07, 2006
<a href="http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&trh=20060107&hn=28369">zaman.com </a></center>
Professor Mehmet Doganay, the Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Department Head at Erciyes University, announced the children were affected by the bird flu first because they entered the hen houses in the region.</b>

Elaborating the reasons behind the three deaths of the children, Doganay told children living in villages enter hen houses and that increases the death ratio among children as they become infected by the bird flu. "People living in Agri have a few chickens and the hen houses are small. Children enter these hen houses and get infected by the virus."

from above article:
The bird flu could be prevented by exterminating all winged animals, not just the killing of poultry animals by individuals.

Oh, my! Exterminate/kill all winged animals??? Can you imagine the silent skies? What an impossible task.

Nuthatch said:

from above article:
The bird flu could be prevented by exterminating all winged animals, not just the killing of poultry animals by individuals.

Oh, my! Exterminate/kill all winged animals??? Can you imagine the silent skies? What an impossible task.

Click to expand...

Exterminating all winged animals? To save the human race from a pandemic? What kind of hairbrained idea is this?
This goes to show the immense level of stupidity and vanity in man. Do they believe birds and all winged animals are strictly there for our personal entertainment?

Just in:

GENEVA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday it had confirmed that two children hospitalised in Turkey had contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, a spokeswoman said.

She said the children, a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, were from the same region where three other children died from bird flu this week. She declined to give any further details.

The article on US authorities recommending personal stockpiling was of interest to me. It brings up the assumption that people have the capacity to do this. The reality, as seen in New Orleans, is that many do not - either through poverty, mobility or social norms.

It is something that I have become acutely aware of dealing with poverty in my district. It is very common for people on public assistance to come into the Family Resource Centers the last week of the month and ask for emeregcny food because they have expended their food stamp allotment. When we had our floods at the end of last month, they opened up Red Cross shelters in those areas that were isolated by floods with no roads passable in or out. The regional big wigs in RC can't understand why those areas with the most poverty saw twice as many people (families) drop in for meals as were staying in the shelters. To me and the local Red Cross that phenomenon was totally predictable.

I mention this because we are learning nothing if we plan on people to take care of themselves. It would be a good strategy for the rich and middle class, but the poor, generally, will not behave in that manner.

"I'm bustin to hear follow-up on this. I've read over and over that if the bird is fully cooked that it isn't infectious

baw"

Just guessing here but maybe the meat is safe to eat after being fully cooked...but most meat is still raw before you cook it and you do have to handle the raw meat first in order to prepare it. Not to mention the fact that most people in the world do not go to a grocery store to buy pre-slaughtered, pre-cut and packaged meat - they catch the birds and slaughter them, pluck them, etc.etc. themselves. How can they possibly avoid catching this virus if they rely on their small flocks of poultry for daily living? This is so sad!!

I have a feeling life will soon be a living hell on earth for all mankind (and animals, too!)

On a side note...I find the bleeding from the throat a most troubling symptom...this virus sounds very gruesome - almost Ebola-like!

Marsh- I hear what you are saying, but I think that the preps are for those that will want to maintain 'isolation' and are able to. And we know from the transit strike in NYC and other simple disruptions, that those who need to earn a living will do their best to show up for work.

Small thread drift: The biggest part of helping the poor is ending their ignorance. Our extension service has held cheap ($5) classes on canning foods, cooking from scratch, etc. It isn't impossible to prep on such limited income, but it does take discipline--hard to come by when you are trying to keep your head above water in myriad social circumstances. It is unfortunate and I am uncertain what we can do to help.

Meantime, I am collecting food pantry foods for my local soup kitchen this month at my business. Every little bit helps.

BREWER

Thanks Dutch for the daily updates. You are spending a great deal of personal time to keep all of us informed. Has everyone/anyone considered the ramifications of poultry/poulty products 'disappearing' from our diets due to massive culling here in the US as well as abroad? This will take our usual recipes and turn them inside out/upside down. I've been in the food/beverage business for thirty years. I've thought this one through and it is a extremely difficult [not impossible] exercise to attemp i.e. cooking without poultry/poultry products. Consider the pressure this will place on other foods such as pork, beef, fish/seafood, et allia. Pork is susceptable to H5N1, too, I believe. Needless to say this is an opportune time to squirrel away some dehydrated eggs, canned chichen and broth and soups or start making same. I except making dehydrated eggs at home unless someone has a recipe. I assume that is a larger process on an industrial scale. Once again.....
BUMP, Bump, bump.

50+ & counting!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25149-1974978,00.html



The Sunday Times January 08, 2006

Turkish deaths put Europe on bird flu alert
Jonathan Leake and Gareth Jenkins

THE number of Turkish people thought to be infected with avian flu rose to more than 50 this weekend, prompting concern that the disease may be about to spread into Europe.

Yesterday a British laboratory confirmed that a Turkish brother and sister who died last week had the feared H5N1 strain of avian flu.

A third child from the same family in Dogubayazit, in eastern Turkey, has now died of avian flu and dozens more suspected cases have emerged.

“The laboratory in the UK said that they have detected H5N1 in samples of the two fatal cases,” said Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation. They are the first fatalities outside East Asia.

The disease is most likely to have been carried to Turkey by migratory birds, which have already spread it across Asia and parts of Russia. Last year a number of birds with the illness were found in Europe. The fear is that these will cross-infect domestic poultry, which will pass the disease on to humans.

Yesterday six more children who have tested positive for avian flu remained in a critical condition in the Turkish city of Van, near Dogubayazit. Another 24 suspected cases are being treated in a special ward in the university hospital.

A further 18 patients with symptoms of the disease, most of them children, are being treated in hospitals in the eastern cities of Yozgat, Erzurum and Diyarbakir. Other cases are being investigated.

The more the virus comes into contact with humans, the more likely it is to mutate into a form that can be transmitted between people. This has not yet happened; if it does it could start a global pandemic.

The H5N1 strain has killed half of all the people who have contracted it. The Spanish flu of 1918, which killed 40m people, was fatal in fewer than one in 10 cases.

Professor John Oxford, an expert on flu at Queen Mary’s medical school, London, said the most worrying aspect of the deaths in Turkey was the large number of human cases resulting from exposure to a small number of birds. He urged British authorities to follow the Dutch in ordering farmers to separate poultry from wild birds by keeping them indoors.

Yesterday Mehdi Eker, the Turkish agriculture minister, confirmed that bird flu had also been identified in two dead ducks found by a reservoir near Ankara, the capital, about 750 miles west of Dogubayazit. And Necdet Unuvar, of the Turkish health ministry, said: “There has also been a large number of suspicious deaths amongst birds in three other counties in Ankara.”

The finds suggest that the disease is moving rapidly westwards and that its arrival in western Europe is only a matter of time.

Officials around Dogubayazit warned the government on December 16 of a surge in bird deaths but it took another 12 days for an investigation to begin. When Muhammet Ali Kocyigit, 14, became Turkey’s first avian flu victim last week, a government spokesman criticised doctors for mentioning the disease because they were “damaging Turkey’s reputation”.

In southeast Asia, more than 70 people have died from H5N1 since 2003 but none has involved human-to-human transmission.

A European commission spokesman said last night: “The latest deaths are a tragedy but, for the moment, we believe we are doing all we can and that we have in place the measures we need to guard against the spread of bird flu.”

This weekend Zeki Kocyigit, the father of the three dead children, said they contracted the disease after the family slaughtered and ate a sickly chicken.

At his two-room house in the poor Kockiran neighbourhood of Dogubayazit, he said: “When Muhammet Ali was getting worse, everybody in the hospital was too busy celebrating the new year to pay any attention. On the evening of January 1, when he began to deteriorate, I was alone by his bedside. His last words were, ‘Cuddle me, Daddy.’ I did and I felt him kiss me on my cheek. Then he died.”



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