1/08: H5N1 Bird Flu Playing Cards, Turkey Updates

Bird flu prevention knowledge printed on poker cards

www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-08 11:20:50


BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A kind of playing cards with bird flu prevention and control knowledge on it has emerged on market in north China's Shanxi Province.

Knowledge such as what bird flu is, harm of the epidemic, its transmission channel, prevention and control measures is shown in cartoons on the 54 cards of the poker.

The addresses and telephone numbers of the disease prevention and control organizations across China are also printed on the playing cards, which was developed by a hospital in Yuncheng City of Shanxi Province.

A total of 30 outbreaks of bird flu were reported in 11 provinces and autonomous regions in China in 2005.

The playing cards will help popularize the bird flu prevention and control knowledge among the people through entertainment.

Turkey's Bird Flu-Control Efforts Stymied by Weather, WHO Says

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Efforts to stem Turkey's outbreak of lethal bird flu are being frustrated by inclement weather that has prevented a team of international health professionals from reaching the eastern province where at least two people have died from the H5N1 virus, the World Health Organization said.

Experts from WHO, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Commission haven't been able to leave for the eastern province of Van because of ``adverse weather conditions,'' the United Nations agency said in a statement yesterday. The Turkish government is helping the team find another ``rapid mode of transportation,'' it said.

Health officials are racing to prevent the deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain from spreading, increasing the risk of more human infection and creating opportunities for the virus to mutate into a pandemic form. More than 30 people are being treated in a Van hospital for suspected avian flu amid discoveries of more diseased poultry, WHO said.

``In recent days, vigilance for outbreaks of the disease in poultry has increased considerably,'' WHO said in the statement, published on its Web site. ``Outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza have now been confirmed in six provinces in the eastern and southeastern part of the country.''

Outbreaks at additional sites in the area are under investigation, it said. At least four outbreaks have occurred in poultry in Turkey since Dec. 30, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

Since December 2003, H5N1 has infected at least 146 people in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Cambodia and now Turkey, according to WHO. Of those, 76 have died.

H5N1 Confirmed

A WHO collaborating laboratory in the U.K. yesterday confirmed detection of the H5N1 virus in samples taken from Turkey's two fatal cases -- a 14-year-old boy who died on Jan. 1 and his 15-year-old sister who died four days later.

Samples from an 11-year-old sister, who died on Jan. 6, and a six-year-old boy being treated in the hospital are under way, WHO said. All four were positive for the virus in tests undertaken by Turkish health officials, Turkey's Ministry of Health said yesterday. The children may have been infected while playing with the severed heads of diseased fowl. The children reportedly tossed the heads like balls inside their home.

Epidemic

A further 33 people are being treated at the Van University Hospital with possible bird flu symptoms, CNN-Turk television reported yesterday. The infections have created one of the largest clusters of human cases, heightening concern that the virus may becoming more contagious to people and possibly being passed from person to person.

``To date, all evidence indicates that patients have acquired their infections following close contact with diseased poultry,'' the World Health Organization said in the statement. Most of the patients are children, and the majority comes from the rural district of Dogubayazit, it said.

Dogubayazit doesn't have facilities to treat bird-flu cases, the Associated Press reported, citing Hutfuetin Kocyigit, an uncle of the children who died. The road from Dogubayazit to the city of Van runs almost 200 kilometers (124 miles) through a craggy, snow-covered chain of mountains that includes Mount Ararat, where Noah's ark is said to have landed after the Biblical great flood, AP said.

Dogubayazit, located near the Iranian border, has a largely Kurdish population of about 56,000, many of whom don't speak Turkish. That's added to the difficulty in communicating the dangers of handling diseased birds.

Hardy Virus

``Contact between people and poultry has likely increased during the present cold weather, when the custom among many rural households is to bring poultry into their homes,'' the UN health agency said. ``Tests have shown that the virus can survive in bird feces for at least 35 days at low temperatures'' of about 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit).

A 12-person team of Turkish animal health officials found 83 dead birds in Dogubayazit, including some left in rubbish bins, between Dec. 31 and Jan. 5, Huseyin Sungur, a director general with the government's veterinary service, said in a report to the World Organization for Animal Health. During the same period, 3,169 animals were killed and destroyed, Sungur said in the report, dated Jan. 6.

``All carcasses were buried with lime in pits on the ground,'' he said. ``Public awareness is being raised'' and training is being performed.

Slaughtering, defeathering, butchering, and preparing diseased poultry for consumption carry an especially high risk of infection, according to the UN health agency.

``Avoidance of high-risk behaviors remains the most important way for local populations to protect themselves from infection,'' WHO said.

Birdflu jumps to northern Turkey, found in poultry
08 Jan 2006 11:59:42 GMT

Source: Reuters

ANKARA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Bird flu virus has been detected in dead chickens in two villages on Turkey's northern, industrial Black Sea coast, officials said, just days after a deadly strain killed three children in the east of the country.

Authorities began mass culling of birds in the agricultural east last week after discovery of the first human infections with the deadly H5N1 strain beyond eastern Asia. Sunday's announcement may raise fear of a further advance towards Europe.

Yavuz Erkmen, governor of Zonguldak region, which has a high concentration of industry and coal mining, said two villages were in quarantine, state Anatolian news agency reported.

"No infections to humans have been detected..nearly 1,500 poultry in two villages will be culled," said Erkmen.

Officials said it was not clear yet if the virus detected in the dead birds was H5N1.

Turkey is the sixth country where the deadly bird flu strain has jumped from poultry to people.

from www.english.aljazeera.net

Bird flu moves west in Turkey
Sunday 08 January 2006, 16:52 Makka Time, 13:52 GMT


Two new Turkish provinces have reported bird flu in fowl

Four more Turks, three of them in Ankara, have tested positive for the bird flu virus and are under treatment.

Kemal Onal, the Ankara Governor, told the Anatolia news agency on Sunday that two children and an adult were hospitalised in the capital, while a health official in Corum, 240km east of Ankara, said a five-year-old boy had also tested positive.

Abdullah Kama, the Corum provincial health director, told Anatolia the child was in good condition and that no cases of bird flu had been detected among poultry in the province.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the four were infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be lethal to humans.

The two children in Ankara are from the town of Beypazari, 100km northwest of the capital, where two wild ducks were found dead from the bird flu in a reservoir two days ago.

Infected birds

Bird flu has infected about 40 poultry farm workers in northern Japan and spread westward in Turkey.

Officials at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases have been testing the blood samples of the workers in Ibaraki prefecture since the first outbreak of bird flu there in June.

Some of them have tested positive for antibodies to H5N2 - a milder strain of bird flu than the deadly H5N1 - in preliminary tests.

The presence of antibodies means that the people were once exposed, said Hiroshi Takimoto, an official of the Health Ministry, on Sunday.

None of them had tested positive for the virus nor developed symptoms of a flu, he said, adding that there was no possibility of the virus spreading from the workers to other people.

There have been no confirmed human cases involving the H5N2 strain anywhere in the world, Japanese officials have said.

Takimoto said that the tests so far suggest that some may
have been infected with the H5N2 strain, but more tests and analysis would be needed.

He declined to say exactly how many tested positive for the antibodies and how many samples had been drawn, saying the tests were continuing and the ministry planned to announce the results early this week.

Kyodo News agency reported that about 40 people are suspected of having been infected with the H5N2 strain after about 400 people were tested.

There have been several outbreaks of bird flu in Ibaraki, about 100km north of Tokyo.
Bird flu hit Japan in 2004 for the first time in decades.

There has been one confirmed human case involving the H5N1 virus, but no reported human deaths.

Turkey: Spreading west

Meanwhile, in Turkey, dead chickens in two villages in Zonguldak province on the Black Sea coast, about 1200km from the worst-hit eastern areas where the virus killed two children, tested positive for the disease, Yavuz Erkmen, the province's governor, said on Sunday.

Erkmen did not specify whether it was the H5N1 strain, which can be lethal for humans.


Two children in eastern Turkey have died from bird flu

"No people have so far been infected" in the area, he told the Anatolia news agency.

In the province of Yozgat, 200km east of Ankara, officials said the virus was detected in dead fowl in at least one village.

The results of tests from three other neighbouring towns were expected soon, they said.

Gokhan Sozer, the governor of Yozgat, told Anatolia that the infected village had been quarantined and all winged animals there slaughtered.

Three people from the village who fell ill after eating sick chicken were hospitalised, Anatolia reported. But Sozer said the patients had caught colds and described them as being in good condition.

I can't get it to load, but www.forbes.com has a headline about Indonesia having a new case of bird flu current as to three hours ago.

It took forever to load on my little dial-up, but here it is:

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2006/01/08/afx2435123.html

Indonesia treating new suspected human case of bird flu
01.08.2006, 06:19 AM

JAKARTA (AFX) - Indonesian doctors said they are treating a 29-year-old woman believed to be suffering from bird flu, which has so far killed at least 11 people across the country.

The patient, Sri Mukti, was admitted to Jakarta's Sulianto Saroso hospital early today after falling ill with pneumonia-like symptoms on Thursday, said hospital spokesman Ilham Patu.

Patu told Agence France-Presse that Mukti had been in contact with her neighbor's dead chickens in her east Jakarta home earlier this week.

Doctors are conducting tests to determine whether she is carrying the deadly virus.

Patu said local tests on a man who died last week, which confirmed that he had died of bird flu, are to be sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) tomorrow.

If the case is confirmed by the Hong Kong laboratory, the man would be Indonesia's 12th fatality from the H5N1 virus, which has killed at least 70 people across Asia since 2003.

The results are expected to be released by Thursday, Patu said.

Sad irony Bird Flu-Turkey

Bird Flu-Turkey, if the pandemic starts here somebody up there has got to be taking the piss.

Take care

=



<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Bird flu moving West into Europe</font>

By Sibel Utku Bila in Ankara, Turkey
January 09, 2006
<A href="http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17767300-5001028,00.html">The Daily Telegraph</a></center>
AT least five more Turks, including two small boys and an adult taken to hospital in Ankara, tested positive for H5N1 bird flu yesterday, as the deadly virus continued to move westward towards Europe.</b>

A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) headed to the worst-hit regions in Turkey's east to assess the Government's response and look for any signs of much-feared human-to-human transmission of the virus.

Two patients in the eastern city of Van and the cases in Ankara were victims of the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza, a health ministry official told Anatolia news agency, bringing to nine the number of people to have been infected.

Two of those people, two children from the same family in eastern Turkey, died last week, becoming the first human fatalities from bird flu outside Southeast Asia and China, where the disease has killed more than 70 people since 2003.

The cases in Ankara, situated some 1000km from the eastern region where the other infections occurred, mark the further westward spread of the disease.

The two boys, aged two and five, were believed to have touched gloves used by their father to carry to the authorities two wild ducks dead from bird flu that the man found earlier this week outside their hometown of Beypazari, near Ankara, their doctor Metin Dogan said.

"The boys are infected but show no signs of illness at the moment," he said.

The third patient, a 60-year-old man from an Ankara suburb, was also in good condition despite contracting the virus after coming in close contact with chicken he bred, his doctor Mahmut Koc said.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>WRAPUP 2-Human bird flu cases spread west in Turkey</font>

08 Jan 2006 15:38:21 GM
By Selcuk Gokoluk
<A href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08750012.htm">Reuters AlertNet</a></center>
ANKARA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Three Turks were reported to be infected with a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital Ankara on Sunday, a new step in the westward march of the virus from its eastern Asian origins.</b>

The first case of the virus jumping from birds to humans in western Asia emerged in Turkey last Wednesday. Three children in the remote eastern Van region died of the highly potent H5N1 strain that has killed 74 people in east Asia.

Ankara Governor Kemal Onal told the state-run Anatolian news agency that two children, aged 5 and 2, and a 60-year-old adult had been diagnosed with the infection in the capital, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Istanbul, Turkey's densely populated largest city, and the Mediterranean area.

The agency said a 5-year-old boy had also been admitted to hospital with suspected bird flu in Corum in central Turkey.

Two children have already tested positive for the H5N1 strain in Van, about 800 km (500 miles) east of Ankara.

The two infected children in hospital in Ankara were brought from nearby Beypazari after contact with dead wild birds.

Their parents tested negative for the disease, doctors said. A separate family sent to hospital in Istanbul on Friday displaying bird flu symptoms also tested negative.

It seems highly likely the children who died in Van region also caught the virus directly from chickens. But world health authorities worry that human exposure to the bird flu could lead to the emergence of a mutation allowing easier transmission between humans -- and raising the prospect of a global pandemic.

A team of World Health Organisation doctors is in Turkey to help investigate the deaths and look for any signs of transmission between humans. But harsh wintry weather in the Van region is hampering their movements, the WHO said.

Moscow raised the prospect of economic damage to Turkey's vital tourist industry, warning Russians against travelling to Turkey after the human infections.

IRAN SHUTS BORDER GATE

Iran, which borders the Turkish region worst affected by the outbreak, closed one of its border crossings, forcing many Turks travelling there for this week's major Muslim holiday marking the Feast of the Sacrifice to return home, Anatolian said.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has appealed to Turks to help in a mass cull aimed at stemming the advance of the virus and promised adequate compensation to farmers and families who rely on poultry for their living.

But in the Dogubayazit district hit by the virus, local people have accused the authorities of being slow to act.

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

The father of the three dead children in eastern Turkey, Zeki Kocyigit, 38, told Reuters they had not known bird flu was still a threat after authorities said they had successfully suppressed an outbreak among poultry in the west of the country.

"Nobody warned us... We thought the bird flu had passed," he said, adding that it was the custom in rural Turkey for families to kill and eat sick birds.

The virus spreads quickly among chickens, killing them in a day, and the best way to control it is immediately to slaughter all poultry in an affected area. This can be difficult in places where, as in eastern Turkey, people keep small backyard flocks.

Poverty also greatly hampers the fight against the disease.

"I did not have the two lira ($1.5) to get Mehmet Ali (their eldest boy) to hospital," his mother Marifet sobbed.

After finally reaching a hospital, the parents watched their eldest son, the first human victim of the disease outside China and southeast Asia, fade fast.

"He died looking at me. He gave me a final kiss just before his death," the father said at their tiny one-room cottage.

"I am the kind of man who says his prayers. Their death was the will of God."

=




<B><center>1/8/2006 10:30 AM
<A href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-01-08-turkey-birdflu_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA">USATODAY.com</a>

<font size=+1 color=green> Early tests show three more in Turkey have bird flu</center></font>
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (AP) — Preliminary tests showed two young brothers and an adult in Ankara have a deadly strain of bird flu, the first suspected cases confirmed outside the eastern city of Van, officials said Sunday, triggering fears the virus is spreading in Turkey. </b>

A British laboratory also confirmed the deadly strain in a 5-year-old boy, while preliminary tests in Turkey detected H5N1 in an 8-year-old girl. Both children are in intensive care in Van, about 60 miles from the Iranian border. (Related news: WHO confirms deadly bird flu in Turkey)

The cases announced Sunday raised to seven the number of cases detected since Wednesday.

A brother and sister in Van also were found to be positive for H5N1 in the preliminary tests, Health Ministry official Turan Buzgan said.

The H5N1 strain has killed at least two Turkish children in recent days — a 14-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister — the first human fatalities from the virus outside east Asia in the current outbreak.

Tests are still being carried out to establish if a third sibling, an 11-year-old girl, also died from the virus.

If confirmed, the two children and an adult who were hospitalized in the Turkish capital, Ankara, would be the first cases of H5N1 found outside the vicinity of Van.

WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said from Geneva that she was aware of the report of the cases in Ankara, but that WHO had yet to be officially informed.

"We don't have any information about cases actually in the capital," Cheng told The Associated Press, adding that WHO representatives were meeting with Turkish officials and she hoped to have more information later Sunday.

Dozens of people who had recently been in close contact with fowl have been hospitalized and were being tested for bird flu across Turkey.

A delegation of WHO representatives, European health officials and Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag traveled to Van Sunday to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, Russia's chief epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, urged Russians not to travel to eastern parts of Turkey because of the bird flu outbreak, according to a statement released Sunday.

The doctor who treated the children who died said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens.

Authorities are closely watching H5N1 for fear it could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and spark a pandemic. Birds in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive for H5N1.

Health officials believe the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry in the affected area. But this can be difficult in places like Dogubayazit — the home town near Van of the siblings who died — where they often roam free.

"This is a disease in fowl, the people who are in contact with them are at risk," Akdag said. "This is the problem which must be addressed."

Authorities here have had difficulties explaining the danger of close contact with fowl to local residents, or the need to deliver all birds for destruction, whether or not they appear sick.

On Sunday, a group of Turkish workers in Dogubayazit had to climb over a wall when a woman refused to open the door and hand over her several chickens, insisting they were fine. The workers could not persuade her to part with the chickens and left, saying they would return with police.

It was a scene often repeated across the impoverished eastern parts of the country, where sometimes chickens are a family's most valuable possession.

But some people who realized the danger were seen inviting workers to collect their poultry in Dogubayazit Sunday. More than 30,000 fowl have been culled so far, private NTV television said Sunday.

The World Health Organization is investigating whether the disease had been transmitted from human to human, Cheng has said. But Akdag said there was no reason to suspect it had.

So far, H5N1 has been capable in rare cases of passing from poultry to humans in close contact with them, but not from human to human.

<b>Akdag urged calm, but Dr. Gencay Gursoy, head of the Istanbul Physicians Association, said the situation was grave.

"Turkey and the world are facing the threat of a serious infection," he said. </b>

=



<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>More Human Cases Of Bird Flu Found In Turkey</font>

POSTED: 7:47 am MST January 8, 2006
UPDATED: 8:20 am MST January 8, 2006
<A href="http://www.kfoxtv.com/health/5927581/detail.html">KFOXTV.com</a></center>
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey -- Health authorities said preliminary tests in Turkey show five more people have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.</b>

That raises the number of people who have contracted the fatal strain to at least seven. A British laboratory has confirmed the findings for at least one of them -- a 5-year-old.

The virulent H5N1 strain has killed at least two teenagers in Turkey in recent days. They are the first human fatalities from H5N1 outside eastern Asia.

Dozens of people who have recently been in close contact with fowl are hospitalized with suspected bird flu cases across Turkey. They're being tested for the virus.

Russia's chief epidemiologist is reportedly urging his countrymen not to travel to Turkey because of the bird flu outbreak.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Lock them up to die </font>
<font size=+0 color=blue>prison bird flu plan</font>

08 January 2006
By HELEN BAIN
<A href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3533357a11,00.html">New Zealand News onstuff.co.nz</a></center>
Some prisoners would be set free, but the most dangerous would be locked away and left to take their chances and the dead buried in mass graves if an Asian bird flu epidemic hits New Zealand's jails. </b>

Government planning documents reveal that low-security prisoners would be released, but the most dangerous prisoners would be left at the mercy of the killer disease.

Entire prisons would be sealed - nobody would be allowed in or out for up to six weeks - and mass graves would be dug in prison compounds to dispose of bodies.

The proposals, details of which were obtained by the Sunday Star-Times, are part of Corrections Department contingency plans to deal with an Asian bird flu pandemic hitting New Zealand and its 7500 prison population.

Three Turkish siblings died last week from the flu - the first human deaths from the disease outside China and South-east Asia. There have been 152 cases of the disease in humans, resulting in 75 deaths.

Bevan Hanlon, president of the prison officers' union the Corrections Association, said a "brainstorming" document covering possible responses to a bird flu outbreak in prisons included a proposal to release low-security prisoners.

Prisoners who might be freed included those nearing the end of their sentences, and those convicted of relatively minor crimes such as drink driving. Serious or dangerous high-security prisoners would not be freed, Hanlon said.

AdvertisementAdvertisementHe said the union supported freeing low-security prisoners if there was a flu outbreak.

Another proposed response to an outbreak was to isolate entire prisons, allowing only medical staff in or out, he said.

Prison officers would be locked in with prisoners for the duration of the outbreak, and no new prisoners could be brought in.

"Once there was an outbreak in a prison it would be a matter of closing the doors and going from there," Hanlon said.

"They are saying six weeks and it would be all over, and after that they go in and clean up what is left, unfortunately."

Those confined in prisons were hit much harder by communicable diseases than were those in the wider community, and the casualty rate in prisons would be much higher than on the outside.

A Health Ministry planning scenario, based on the 1918 flu epidemic, says up to 40 per cent of New Zealanders could contract influenza and up to 33,000 people could die.

Because prisoners were close together, especially in currently crowded conditions, disease spread quickly, and a bird flu pandemic could cut a swathe through prison populations, Hanlon said.

"That's what it is like when they get the ordinary flu - it travels quickly."

The union wanted to ensure prison officers would be on the list of those guaranteed supplies of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu.

Officers would give whatever help they could in a crisis, but needed to be kept informed about what was happening, Hanlon said.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Karen Roe said managing prisoners in the event of an outbreak was Corrections' responsibility, and the ministry would not tell it what it should do.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said prisoners should not be freed under any circumstances, even if keeping them in jail meant they stood a high risk of dying from bird flu.

=



<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Russian citizens warned against visiting Turkey out of concern over bird flu</font>

www.chinaview.cn
2006-01-09 00:04:10
<A href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/09/content_4026213.htm">news.xinhuanet.com</a></center>
MOSCOW, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia's public health authorities on Sunday warned the public against visiting Turkey following human cases of bird flu in the country. </b>

Chief state epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko asked Russian citizens to refrain from visiting Turkey, the eastern Van provincein particular, after a British lab confirmed three children from the same family died of bird flu in the province.

Turkey is a popular tourist destination for Russians.

Explaining the reason for concern over bird flu in Turkey, Onishchenko told state television that Turkey's human cases of bird flu are quite close to Russia's borders and Russia is expecting an ordinary flu epidemic to peak in January.

Russia itself was hit by an outbreak of bird flu in migratory birds and poultry last year, but no humans were infected by the virus.

The bird flu virus, strains of which can spread to humans and can be fatal, has claimed lives of more than 70 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.

Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a disease that can easily pass among humans, which would trigger a global pandemic. Enditem

=




<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Experts fear bird flu mutation in eastern Turkey </font>

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 08 January 2006
<A href="http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article337233.ece">news.independant.co.uk</a></center>
UN experts headed for a remote area of eastern Turkey yesterday to find out whether it is witnessing the start of the much-feared pandemic of bird flu that could kill 150 million people worldwide. </b>

The World Health Organisation, which has sent a team of six to the area, centred on the town of Dogubayazit, in the mountains near the Iranian border, says the result of the investigations should be known "in the next few days". Yesterday, however, fog kept the experts stuck in the capital, Ankara.

The area is already the site of the world's worst outbreak of the disease, which has so far killed about 75 people. And the virus, codenamed H5N1, is spreading rapidly in Turkey.

Three children from the same family in the area, Mehmet, Fatima and Hulya Kocyigit, have died of the disease. Turkish sources said yesterday that tests had confirmed that another two patients had caught it.

In all, 26 people, mainly children, are being treated for suspected bird flu in hospital in Van, where the three siblings died. Ominously it is believed they come from several provinces in the east of the country.

Another six children are in hospital in Diyarbakir, 250 miles south of Dogubayazit, and a family of seven are being treated in Istanbul after travelling from the east of the country.

The total number of cases, the first reported outside China and south-east Asia, is approaching a third of the total of 142 known to have occurred worldwide since 2003. The virus, which it is believed wild birds spread to poultry and then to people, has also been found in birds in several of Turkey's eastern provinces. Yesterday it was detected in two wild ducks at a lake near Ankara, far to the west.

Some experts say the sudden increase in the disease in people means the virus has mutated to enable it to spread more efficiently from poultry to people. They fear also that it may have started to move from person to person, signalling the start of a devastating spread around the world.

But others believe the Turkish outbreak has been fuelled by close contact with infected chickens which have been brought into homes to shelter them from harsh weather.

UN experts headed for a remote area of eastern Turkey yesterday to find out whether it is witnessing the start of the much-feared pandemic of bird flu that could kill 150 million people worldwide.

The World Health Organisation, which has sent a team of six to the area, centred on the town of Dogubayazit, in the mountains near the Iranian border, says the result of the investigations should be known "in the next few days". Yesterday, however, fog kept the experts stuck in the capital, Ankara.

The area is already the site of the world's worst outbreak of the disease, which has so far killed about 75 people. And the virus, codenamed H5N1, is spreading rapidly in Turkey.

Three children from the same family in the area, Mehmet, Fatima and Hulya Kocyigit, have died of the disease. Turkish sources said yesterday that tests had confirmed that another two patients had caught it.

In all, 26 people, mainly children, are being treated for suspected bird flu in hospital in Van, where the three siblings died. Ominously it is believed they come from several provinces in the east of the country.
Another six children are in hospital in Diyarbakir, 250 miles south of Dogubayazit, and a family of seven are being treated in Istanbul after travelling from the east of the country.

The total number of cases, the first reported outside China and south-east Asia, is approaching a third of the total of 142 known to have occurred worldwide since 2003. The virus, which it is believed wild birds spread to poultry and then to people, has also been found in birds in several of Turkey's eastern provinces. Yesterday it was detected in two wild ducks at a lake near Ankara, far to the west.

Some experts say the sudden increase in the disease in people means the virus has mutated to enable it to spread more efficiently from poultry to people. They fear also that it may have started to move from person to person, signalling the start of a devastating spread around the world.

But others believe the Turkish outbreak has been fuelled by close contact with infected chickens which have been brought into homes to shelter them from harsh weather.

Turkish deaths put Europe on bird flu alert

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.”

Turkish deaths put Europe on bird flu alert

=



<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>H5N1 Postive Patients Detected Across Turkey</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01080601/H5N1_Turkey_Confirmed_8.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 8, 2006</center>
Ankara Governor Kemal Onal told the state-run Anatolia news agency on Sunday that two children and one adult had been diagnosed with the infection in the capital</b>

The agency said a 5-year-old boy had also been admitted to hospital with suspected bird flu in Corum in central Turkey.

CNN Turk television said two of the three infected Ankara children had been brought to Ankara from nearby Beypazari after contact with dead wild birds.

The above reports indicate that H5N1 positive patients in Turkey are growing in numbers and geographical range.

Another media report indicated that the 4th confirmed H5N1 patient was Sumeyya Mumak. A 10 year old patient with a similar name, Sumeyya Pumak was listed among the first 22 patients admitted to the hospital in Van. Thus, it appears that neither Aysegul Ozkan nor other members of the Ozkan family are confirmed H5N1. However, the large number of patients at the Van hospital with pneumonia and bleeding throats, coupled with two family members in intensive care suggests that many or all admitted members of the Ozkan family will be H5N1 confirmed.

The latest news indicates the number of H5N1 positive patients is rapidly growing and are at several locations throughout Turkey. These data indicate that the H5N1 version that can efficient infect humans is being spread by migratory birds. The latest list of human cases H5N1 confirmed at Van or H5N1 positive elsewhere are below.

The number of H5N1 positive patients is of concern. The patients in Van and Corum are in locations where there have been no report H5N1 positive birds.

The efficient transmision of H5N1 to humans, as well as the lack of H5N1 positive birds linked to some cases, raise additional concerns of human-to-human transmission..

Confirmed H5N1 Patients at Van

Muhammed Ali Kocugit (14M) Dogubeyazit (deceased)

Fatima Kocugit (15F) Dogubeyazit (deceased)

Yusuf Tunc (5M) Dogubeyazit

Sumeyya Pumak (Mumak) (8/9/10F) Van

H5N1 positive elsewhere

Child sibling (5M) Beypazari

Child sibling (2M) Beypazari

Adult (60M) Ankara suburb

Child (5M) Corum

=



<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>H5N1 Infections in People and Poultry in Georgia?</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01070605/H5N1_Georgia.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 7, 2006</center>
Jambul Maghlakelidze, Head of the Veterinarian Service of Georgia left for Laghodekhi region in rush on Friday to personally check reported death of hens in one of the local farms will alleged symptoms of bird flu.</b>

The hens were found symptoms of bird flu in the family of Laliashvilis in the village of Shroma, Prime-News was said by local Hereti Radio Station; the hens have their limbs red and fluid runs down from their beaks.

Roughly 40 hens have died in one of the villages of Zestafoni region. Signs of illness were analogical to the case in Lagodekhi. Hens had mucus from beakes. Owner of the died hens also has high temperature.

The above reports on poultry deaths in two provinces in Georgia suggest H5N1 has migrated into that country also. Recent H5N1 outbreaks have been reported to the northeast in the Volga Delta and to the northwest on the Crimea Peninsula as well as the Danube Delta.

To the south, H5N1 outbreaks are widespread in poultry and wild birds in Turkey, Some of the earliest reported outbreaks are in the northeast, near Georgia. Moreover, media reports indicated birds have been dying in eastern Turkey as well as countries adjacent to Georgia since October.

Therefore, the two outbreaks at opposite sides of Georgia are cause for concern.

In addition, symptoms in the owner of the hens in Zestafoni are cause for concern because of the proximity to confirmed H5N1 human cases in Turkey.

Details on H5N1 testing of the hens in both provinces as well as the owner in Zestafoni would be useful.

At what point does a country grab hold of the bullet, chomp down on it and close itself to outside access???

WHen do you take a BIG bite of the scat sandwitch and quarantine your whole frelin country?

And have we somehow MISSED that point in Turkey? Perhaps by as much as 4-8 days???

night driver said:

At what point does a country grab hold of the bullet, chomp down on it and close itself to outside access???

WHen do you take a BIG bite of the scat sandwitch and quarantine your whole frelin country?

And have we somehow MISSED that point in Turkey? Perhaps by as much as 4-8 days???

Click to expand...

I believe it to be too late for a Quarantine now Chuck - I'm beginning to pick up H5N1 action in Georgia now....

And from the dispersal; and the numbers (now 50+ admitted to) suddenly showing up. H2H may well be underway as well....

On the march towards Europe

Three people found with bird flu in Turkish capital

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey announced on Sunday that three people had tested positive for bird flu in the Turkish capital, Ankara, marking a further westward advance of the infection towards the frontiers of Europe.

Ankara Governor Kemal Onal told the state-run Anatolia news agency that two children and one adult had been diagnosed with the infection; but it was not clear if they were suffering from the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed three people in the remote east of the country.

The agency said a five-year old boy had been admitted to hospital with suspected bird flu in Corum in central Turkey. The virus had been spreading since October among flocks in Turkey, having advanced from Southeast Asia; but no people in Turkey had been reported infected until last week.

The emergence of human cases of the flu in the Van area, near the borders of Iran and Armenia, raised fears the disease might advance to major Turkish population centres and to Europe.

It seems highly likely that the children who died in Van region caught the virus directly from chickens. But world health authorities are concerned that human exposure to the bird flu could lead to emergence of a mutation allowing easier transmission between humans and raising the prospect of a pandemic.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.as...01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-231018-1&sec=Worldupdates

=



<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Iran announces bird flu measures, Syria says all clear</font>

Published: 1/8/2006
<A href="http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=100659">Turkish Press.com</a></center>
TEHRAN - Iran has since last March banned poultry imports from Turkey where at least two people have died of bird flu, an official said Sunday, while Iranians were urged to avoid travel to the neighbouring state. </b>

"Since the beginning of the year (the Iranian year ends March 21) there have been no poultry imports from Turkey," customs official Naser Kermani was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.

Kermani indicated that Iran had since also prohibited poultry imports from Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Vietnam, South Korea and Cambodia where sporadic cases of the virus have emerged in recent months.

Asking Iranians to avoid travel to Turkey, the Iranian health ministry also said that the sale of poultry had been banned in three cities close to the border with Turkey -- Poldasht, Makou and Orumiye.

Syria meanwhile announced it was clear of the virus, with an official denying rumours that a man had died from the disease near Syria's northern border with Turkey.

"There is no case of bird flu in Syria. All reports of deaths from this illness are rumours," said health ministry official Mahmud Karim, adding that a man died recently in the northwest of the country from "pulmonary illness".

He said that Syrian authorities were in constant contact with the World Health Organisation and other bodies to coordinate efforts to prevent an outbreak.

Two Turkish children from the town of Dogubeyazit, just 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the country's eastern border with Iran, died last week after playing with a a sick chicken.

The two deaths from the H5N1 strain of the virus marked the first human fatalities from bird flu outside Southeast Asia and China, where the disease has killed more than 70 people since 2003.

Iran on Saturday said that it was closing its border crossing with Turkey to one-day visitors, the mayor of the border town of Makoo, Alireza Radfar, told the official IRNA news agency.

"Pilgrims headed for Syria and foreign tourists ... can still cross after being held in quarantine," before entering Iran, he said, without specifying its duration.

Another thing that worries me...cats!!! How many of us own pet cats? We have two that are inside/outside cats and love to hunt small critters (mostly birds) and bring them to the nearest door as 'gifts'.

Remember the tigers in Asia that died from eating infected chickens a while back? What happens when our household cats start coming down with this and spread them to their families?

I think this is going to be a big nightmare.

The Center for Disease COntrol (CDC) has business information on the avian flu available now, new at their website.

For the Pandemic Flu Business Checklist:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic/pdf/businessChecklist.pdf

=




<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Prison flu plan raises concern for civil liberty </font>

09 January 2006
<A href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3534467a11,00.html">www.stuff.co.nz</a></center>
A reported proposal that the most dangerous prisoners should remain locked away and left to take their chances if an Asian bird flu pandemic hit New Zealand has been attacked by civil libertarians. </b>

The proposal is contained in Corrections Department contingency plans to deal with the country's 7500 prisoners in the event of a pandemic, it was reported yesterday.

The plans included releasing low-security prisoners but leaving the most dangerous inmates at the mercy of the disease, which has killed 70 people worldwide since 2003.

Also under consideration was sealing entire prisons for six weeks, with no one allowed in or out and the dead being buried in mass graves.

New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott said he had not been aware of the proposals so could not comment in detail. But, as a matter of principle, the state had an obligation to look after those in its care.

"The state had a moral obligation to look after the people in its charge, and that includes prison inmates," he said.

"It cannot just wash its hands because there's a natural disaster. The right to life is fundamental."

AdvertisementAdvertisementMr Bott also said it made sense during a natural crisis to release inmates who were less of a threat to the community.

That could pose a legal problem, however, because it was ordinarily the Parole Board that made the decision to free inmates.

Bevan Hanlon, president of the Corrections Association, the prison officers union, said a "brainstorming" document proposed that prisoners who might be freed included those nearing the end of their sentences.

Others might be those convicted of relatively minor crimes such as drink-driving, he said.

Another option was to isolate entire prisons, with prison officers being locked in with inmates, and only medical staff allowed to come and go.

Mr Hanlon said the Corrections Association wanted prison officers to be on the list of those guaranteed supplies of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Because inmates were close together, disease spread quickly through prisons, he said.

The Health Ministry has estimated that, in the most severe scenario involving Asian bird flu, up to 40 per cent of New Zealanders could contract the disease, resulting in up to 33,000 deaths.

=




<B><center>January 08, 2006]
<A href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/jan/1269251.htm">www.tmcnet.com</a>

<font size=+1 color=green>Preparing for a workplace pandemic: Companies, agencies find continuity plans nothing to sneeze at</font></center>

(Tulsa World (OK) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 8--Flu season is upon us, and all fingers are crossed in the hope that any outbreaks won't be more serious than usual.</b>

Still, individuals and businesses are advised to be prepared now and in the future for the possibility of a deadly flu pandemic, similar to those that killed thousands of Americans in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

The federal government, in particular, has been warning companies to develop specific plans to protect employees and maintain operations during an outbreak. But the message does not seem to be getting through.

In a recent survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and the ERISA Industry Committee, 66 percent of respondents said their companies had not adequately planned to protect themselves; 14 percent said they had adequately planned; and 20 percent were undecided on whether their preparations were adequate.

11 Cities Quarantined

Bird Flu Spreads, 11 Cities Quarantined

Published: Sunday, January 08, 2006
zaman.com

Bird flu cases were detected in Erzincan and Bitlis after it was found in Agri, Kars, Van, Yalova, Ankara, Igdir, Erzurum and Sanliurfa, informed Mehdi Eker, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Early on Saturday evening, the Kahadir village of Bursa was put under quarantine.

Yozgat: Measures were increased over the deaths of birds in four villages of the Akdagmadeni district. Almost 2,500 birds were killed. Three were hospitalized at the Hospital of Sivas Cumhuriyet University as a precaution against possible bird flu stroke.

Sanliurfa: Esat Bal, 13, transferred from Siverek to Diyarbakir and hospitalized at the Hospital of Dicle University, remains in critical condition and is receiving intensive care.

Siirt: Five children from the Baysal family were hospitalized at the Research Hospital of Dicle University on suspicion of bird flu infection. The Baysal family, residents of the Celikli Village of the Baykan District, lost their chickens four days ago.

Agri: Five were transferred from the districts of Diyadin and Tascay to Erzurum on suspicion of the bird flu infection. The number of animals killed increased to 27,843.

Erzurum: All the fowls in three villages and 10 small districts were killed as part of the quarantine policies applied in the district of Horasan.

Bitlis: The Bird flu strain was detected in the Aydinlar area of the Adilcevaz district. Samples taken from the pigeons that died two months ago were sent to Bornova, Izmir. The pigeons were diagnosed with the bird flu strain. No fowls were let either in or out of the city.

Ankara: After the bird flu was detected in two ducks in Nallihan town of Ankara a crisis desk was established. About ten people who brought the two ducks with bird flu to the agriculture headquarters of the town were sent to the hospital for control. No illness was detected in these people.

Van: Reportedly 3,813 poultries were massacred in Caldiran town and 55,000 more poultries will be massacred to prevent the spread of the illness..

Igdir: Two children were reported to be sent to Erzurum for bird flu possibility. Quarantine is being applied throughout the boundaries of the city.

Yalova: No bird flu virus was detected in the seven member family, 5 of whom were children, in Istanbul Haseki Hospital. Istanbul Health Manager Mehmet Bakar explained the children did not have bird flu virus but regular influenza and they were discharged from the hospital.

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&trh=20060108&hn=28404

Mecca alert for bird flu threat to hajj pilgrims
By William Wallis in Cairo
Published: January 9 2006 02:00 | Last updated: January 9 2006 02:00

Saudi Arabia has had to contend with the threat of bird flu as well as heightened security fears at the start of this year's hajj pilgrimage, which began yesterday.

Officials in the kingdom have been on high alert after warnings from health experts that the gathering at Mecca, Islam's birthplace, of more than 2m pilgrims from around the Muslim world could provide conditions for a deadly bird flu pandemic.

Saudi officials have spent 25 million riyals ($6.7m, €5.5m, £3.8m) stocking up on Tamiflu, the drug that can reduce the severity of the disease if taken shortly after symptoms emerge. Regional health officials said Saudi Arabia had also tightened screening of pilgrims at ports and airports and banÂÂ*ned imported poultry in an attempt to minimise health risks at the ritual gathering, which has proved a vector for past flu epidemics.

Hamad al-Manei, the health minister, said contingency plans had been prepared in the event of an outbreak and the World Health Organisation (WHO) was ready to provide support.

So far the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed only people in sustained and direct contact with infected poultry. But experts fear that in certain circumstances it could mutate into a form transmittable from human to human.

Victims of the disease have included three children from Turkey, who died last week, providing the latest evidence of the disease's progression from Asia to the fringes of Europe. In the past, however, stampede rather than disease has proved a greater threat at the annual hajj, which able-bodied Muslims are expected to carry out at least once in their lifetime.

Security has also been an issue following a bombing in 1989 and clashes between Iranian Shia pilgrims and Saudi security forces in 1987 in which 400 people died.

Signs of sectarian and regional tensions emerged yesterday with Iraq's outgoing prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, accusing Saudi authÂÂ*orities of barring thousands of Iraqis from the pilgrimage. The Saudi authorities reacted angrily, with the pilgrimage ministry accusing Mr Jafaari's Shia-led government of favouring Shia over Sunni Muslims in the allocation of places on the hajj.

The numbers of pilgrims arriving in Saudi Arabia this year have been kept slightly lower because of security concerns. Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the interior minister, said a record 60,000 soldiers had been deployed to police the pilgrimage.

The Saudi authorities have also used at least 1.3bn riyals from this year's record oil revenues to improve infrastructure for pilgrims.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/68d7d33a-80b4-11da-8f9d-0000779e2340.html

=

I am retiring the 01/08 tread to the infectious forum..