01/09 H5N1| Turkey Quarantines 11 Cities

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This news article is by the courtasy of PCViking;

And IMHO. It is an incredibly <b>BIG DOT!</b> Too big a dot for it to be on the tail end of the 01/08 H5N1 thread. Thanks for finding it PCViking - a very good catch).


<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Bird Flu Spreads, 11 Cities Quarantined</font>

<A href="http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&trh=20060108&hn=28404">Published: Sunday, January 08, 2006
zaman.com</a></center>
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.</b>

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.

(original thread - I have not learned how to move individual threads - yet!)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1693740&postcount=26

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Humans May Be Infected With Bird Flu In Ankara, Turkey</font>

Category: Flu/Bird Flu/SARS News
Article Date: 09 Jan 2006
<A href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=35891">medicalnewstoday.com</a></center>
Turkish authorities say they have identified three cases of human bird flu infection in Ankara, the capital. Two other cases have been found near the border with Iran. Samples have been sent to a lab in the United Kingdom for confirmation. </b>

If the Ankara cases are confirmed, it means human infection has travelled 500 miles in less than a week within the country (from Van, Eastern Turkey).

The UK lab has confirmed 4 human cases of bird flu infection in Turkey so far. Turkish tests have confirmed 9. (The confirmations that count are the UK lab ones).

On a hopeful note, WHO says it seems that all the patients got infected from birds - meaning the infection has not yet learnt how to spread easily from human-to-human.

Over the last couple of weeks temperatures have dropped dramatically in Eastern Turkey. Many people who own chickens have brought them into their homes. This very close proximity to poultry may be the reason clusters of human infections have been popping up - rather than the possibility that the virus has learnt how to jump from bird to humans more easily. In south east Asia, winters are nowhere near as severe as in the affected parts of Turkey i.e. it may be the case that Turkish poultry owners have had closer, more continuous contact with their birds than in other affected parts of the world.

Authorities and agencies are trying to come to grips with clusters of suspected cases that seem to be popping up in the country. Several people are in hospital in Turkey with bird flu like symptoms.

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<center><B>Malaysia

<font size=+1 color=green>Battle plan against bird flu pandemic</font>

Annie Freeda Cruez
PUTRAJAYA, Sun
<A href="http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Monday/National/20060109092545/Article/index_html">www.nst.com.my</a></center>
The simulation exercise to test the country’s influenza pandemic preparedness plan is set to take place by March.

Tomorrow, Health director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican will meet high commissioners, ambassadors and representatives from the business sector to brief them on the plan. </b>

"I will brief them on our preparation for a flu pandemic, the strategies in place to deal with a breakout and how we will handle the situation," he told the New Straits Times.

The meeting follows concerns expressed by envoys based here that they were in the dark as to how well Malaysia was prepared for a bird flu pandemic.

Three committees have been formed to handle the pandemic, including an inter-ministerial committee chaired by Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Dr Chua’s tasks include updating ministers on the preparedness plan and strategies to deal with a flu pandemic and to outline each minister’s role in the simulation exercise.

Similarly, Dr Ismail said, he had held talks with the authorities and non-governmental organisations on the issue.

He had also briefed state health directors and state executive councillors.

On Nov 11, Dr Chua announced Malaysia’s contingency plans, which include police patrols at quarantine zones — a three-kilometre area of any suspected human case of bird flu — and health authorities conducting house-to-house checks for other suspected cases.

These moves are part of a Level-3 alert, raised when the H5N1 avian flu virus spreads to humans.

(Level 2 indicates a human pandemic outside Malaysia; Level 1, detection of a new virus; Level 0 means Malaysia is virus free.)

At Level 3, the ministry has the discretion to declare an emergency.

The ministry needs RM60 million for the first stage to fight avian flu.

This includes stockpiling the anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 10 per cent of the population, increasing manpower, buying protective gear, equipping hospitals and conducting awareness campaigns.

Dr Ismail said all state hospitals were now equipped with the manpower, negative-pressure isolation rooms and implements to handle a flu pandemic.

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Killer strain of bird flu 'at the door' of Europe</font>

By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
(Filed: 09/01/2006)
<A href="http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/09/wflu09.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/09/ixnewstop.html">portal.telegraph.co.uk</a></center>
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is "at the door of Europe", health officials said yesterday after tests found three people infected with the virus in Ankara.

The city's governor, Kemal Onal, said two boys, aged five and two, and a 60-year-old man had been diagnosed with the infection at a hospital in the Turkish capital, 250 miles east of Istanbul.</b>

The two infected boys were brought from the nearby city of Beypazari, reportedly after handling gloves used by their father to collect dead wild birds to turn them over to the authorities.

Beypazari is about 60 miles north-west of the capital, and has been on alert since two wild ducks were found dead from bird flu in a reservoir there two days ago.

The Turkish tests have yet to be confirmed by the British laboratory that identified deaths in eastern Turkey last week as the result of infection by H5N1.

Panic began to spread across Turkey yesterday, with anxious parents overwhelming sometimes poorly equipped clinics with children showing flu-like symptoms. Iran closed one of its border crossings with the country, while Russians were advised by their government to avoid travel to Turkey.

The cases in Ankara mark another dramatic westwards advance for the disease. Until last week, when Turkey became only the sixth country to report human deaths from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, it had not caused any fatalities outside east Asia.

Last week, four children from one family fell sick after close contact with a dead chicken. They came from a poor Kurdish family in a rural eastern province, Van, where birds are commonly brought indoors during winter nights.

Mehmet Kocyigit, 14, from the remote mountain town of Dogubayazit, died a few days after helping to pluck a chicken that had died. His two sisters have since died, at least one from H5N1, with tests at a British laboratory still pending on the other. His seven-year-old brother is fighting for his life.

Another child is also infected with H5N1 in Van, 500 miles from Ankara near the border with Iran.

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

All those infected in Turkey were apparently in close contact with sick birds.

The virulent strain of bird flu, which has been endemic in south-east Asia and China for at least two years, has shown itself capable of jumping the "species gap" to humans, and has killed more than 70 people since 2003.

But crucially, the H5N1 strain is not very contagious.

A senior World Health Organisation expert on communicable diseases, Klaus Stoehr, said the latest outbreak did not mean that the risk to humans worldwide had increased.

Mehmet Kocyigit, 14, from the remote mountain town of Dogubayazit, died a few days after helping to pluck a chicken that had died. His two sisters have since died, at least one from H5N1, with tests at a British laboratory still pending on the other. His seven-year-old brother is fighting for his life.

Click to expand...

To pluck a chicken that had died? Not a chicken that had been killed, but a chicken that had died?

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<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Latest cases put bird flu on Europe's doorstep</font>

RHIANNON EDWARD
January 9 2006
<A href="http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=34562006">TheScotsman.com</a></center>
BIRD flu has been diagnosed in three people near the Turkish capital, Ankara - the first time the deadly H5N1 virus has struck humans so close to the borders of Europe.

Authorities said last night they did not know how the two brothers, aged five and two, and a 60-year-old had acquired the infection. However it is reported the three came from a town, about an hour from Ankara, where ducks had been affected by the disease. </b>

The cases, which have still to be officially confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) labs, are the first in western Asia - which includes part of Turkey. About 500 miles east of Ankara, a boy of five and his eight-year-old sister from Van, a city near the Iranian border, have also tested positive for the H5N1 strain, it was confirmed by British and Turkish laboratories yesterday.

Another brother and sister in Van had also been found to be positive for H5N1 in preliminary tests, Turan Buzgan, a health ministry official, said last night. Two children from the same region were confirmed to have died from the virus last week and it is suspected a third also fell victim. If these cases are confirmed, it would bring the total number of bird flu cases in Turkey to ten, with seven deaths.

The authorities have begun a mass cull of poultry in an effort to stop the disease spreading. 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.

Professor Hugh Pennington, of Aberdeen University, president of the Society for General Microbiology, said: "The most important thing is to get the virus stamped out in Turkey before it spills over into continental Europe. It's not a long distance and birds are flying around all the time. It's quite scary from that point of view."

He emphasised there was nothing to suggest the virus had mutated and had been passed from human to human. In the short term, he said, the largest threat was to poultry, not people.

Last week the virus claimed the lives of two children from Van - 14-year-old Mehmet Ali and his 15-year-old sister Fatma. Tests are still being carried out to establish if their sister, Hulya, 11, also died from H5N1. Twenty people in the city remain in hospital under treatment for suspected bird flu.

A team of seven WHO 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 progress.

Maria Cheng, a WHO spokeswoman, said the organisation was investigating whether the disease had been transmitted, but Recep Akdag, the Turkish health minister, said there was no reason to suspect it had. He 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."

Tests were under way to determine whether any of the dozens of Turks hospitalised with suspected bird flu had contracted the strain, but the reports have already triggered panic.

Health officials believe the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry in the affected area. More than 30,000 fowl have been culled so far, private NTV television said. But this can be difficult in places like Dogubayazit, where chickens are sometimes a family's most valuable possession.

Officials have had difficulties in explaining to residents the danger of close interaction with poultry, and the need to deliver all birds for destruction whether or not they appear to be sick.

Russia's chief epidemiologist has urged his countrymen not to travel to eastern parts of Turkey because of the bird flu outbreak. Iran has also introduced restrictions on its borders. Birds in Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive for H5N1.

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<B><center>09/01/2006, 12:54:32
<A href="http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1543991.htm">RadioAustralia.net.au</a>

<font size=+1 color=red>The bird flu virus appears to be spreading in Turkey.</font></center>

Last week, at least two Turkish children died from a strain of bird flu known as H5N1, the first victims of the disease in Europe.

Our Europe correspondent, Rafael Epstein , says five more Turks, including two small boys and an adult in the capital, Ankara, have now tested positive for H5N1.</b>

Scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into an rapidly spreading strain of influenza able to be transmitted from person to person rather than being confined to a disease caught from birds.

A team of experts from the World Health Organisation have travelled to the worst-hit regions in Turkey's east to assess the government's response.

Turkey's agriculture ministry says bird flu among winged animals had now been confirmed in 10 of the country's 81 provinces.

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<B><center>January 08, 2006 09:41 PM ET

<font size=+1 color=brown>Human bird flu spreads to western Turkey</font>

<A href="http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=FT&Date=20060108&ID=5399266">moneycentral.msn.com</a></center>
All Financial Times NewsThe Turkish health ministry confirmed on Sunday that five more people have contracted the deadliest strain of bird flu as the disease spread westward reaching Ankara.

With seven cases of the H5N1 strain of the virus now confirmed, news that the deadly flu had reached the outskirts of the capital added to the growing sense of crisis gripping the country after the deaths of three children last week.</b>

The latest cases are likely to raise fresh concerns about the government's handling of the outbreak. Opposition leaders have demanded the resignations of the health and agriculture ministers and media reports have been critical of what they claim is the country's lack of preparedness despite the known dangers.

Iran on Sunday began restricting the movement of people and vehicles across its border with Turkey, and a senior Russian epidemiologist advised against travel to the country because of the outbreak.

The health ministry said on Sunday, two children and an adult had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in the capital Ankara, and two children in the eastern city of Van, where the city's university hospital has been inundated with claimed or suspected cases of the disease.

Two other people in Van, about 1,000km east of Ankara, had already tested positive for the virus, and at least 40 people, many of whom are children, remain under observation there and elsewhere with bird flu symptoms. All leave has been cancelled for medical personnel around Turkey.

Officials from the government and the World Health Organisation battled severe winter weather as they attempted to reach an isolated area of eastern Turkey, near the borders with Iran and Armenia. The three dead children – two sisters and a brother aged 11, 14 and 15 – were contaminated there after apparently playing with the head of a chicken that had died of the disease.

The state-run Anatolian news agency reported that Iran, which borders western Turkey, has closed at least one border crossing

Tests in Turkey and at a WHO laboratory in London confirmed that at least two of the three children died from the H5N1 strain of the virus, the first fatalities in Europe. The strain has killed at least 74 people in Asia in the past three years.

A cull of domestic poultry was still under way late on Sunday in the area around Dogubayazit, the village where the children lived, and in other parts of the country where dead birds have been discovered. Eastern Turkey has many mountain lakes where migrating birds stop, and poor families in the region bring their poultry into their homes in winter.

The three cases in Ankara were announced hours after authorities in the capital set up "bird flu crisis centres" at two hospitals. Doctors said that "all the necessary measures" were being taken to deal with the outbreak, but there were fears that Turkey's health system could be overburdened if people continued to turn up at hospitals out of panic, fearing that they might have the disease, as appears to have happened in Van.

Turkey first reported incidents of bird flu at a poultry farm in the west of the country in October, and the latest outbreak began in late December.

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<B><center>Bird Flu Appears To Spread In Turkey
<font size=+1 color=green>3 Suspected Cases Found in Ankara</font>

By Benjamin Harvey
Associated Press
Monday, January 9, 2006; Page A16
<A href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010800819.html?nav=rss_world">washingtonpost.com</a></center>
DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey, Jan. 8 -- Fears rose Sunday that a deadly strain of bird flu was spreading in Turkey after preliminary tests showed two children and an adult tested positive for the virus in Ankara -- Turkey's first known cases outside a region in the country's far east.</b>

Health officials cautioned that the H5N1 strain has so far only been confirmed in humans who were in close and prolonged contact with fowl, but they said they were monitoring the virus for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans and spark a pandemic.

A Turkish Agriculture Ministry official collects poultry in the village of Dogubayazit, where three siblings are thought to have died of bird flu. (By Murad Sezer -- Associated Press)

A 15-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother from the eastern village of Dogubayazit died of the disease last week -- the first humans outside East Asia to succumb to the deadly strain that has apparently been spread by migratory birds.

A third sibling also was believed to have died of bird flu, but the World Health Organization has not confirmed the cause of death.

A British laboratory, meanwhile, confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in a 5-year-old Turkish boy, while preliminary tests in Turkey detected the strain in an 8-year-old girl. Both children are in intensive care in Van, about 600 miles east of Ankara.

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

The announcements raised to 10 the number of suspected cases detected since Wednesday, including the three siblings who died.

Dozens of people who recently had been in close contact with fowl have been hospitalized and were being tested for bird flu as a sense of worry spread across the country and into others.

Health officials believe the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry in the affected area. But they often run into problems in rural areas such as Dogubayazit, where villagers have resisted turning in their animals.

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

"This virus spreads rapidly," workers shouted through loudspeakers in Dogubayazit on Sunday, demanding that villagers turn in their poultry.

A group of Turkish workers, meanwhile, had to climb over a wall in the village when a woman refused to open the door and hand over her chickens, insisting they were not sick. 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, ducks or turkeys are a family's most valuable possessions.

The Federal govenment on Friday urged Americans to stockpile food, water, and medicine in an effort to prepare for what officials warn could be widespread disruptons in the event of an influenza pandemic. FOX NEWS MAINSTREAM post on their web site on 1-6-06

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Three treated for bird flu in Turkish capital </font>

Luke Harding in Istanbul and agencies
Monday January 9, 2006
<A href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,14207,1682237,00.html">The Guardian.co.uk</a></center>
The outbreak of human infections from the deadly strain of bird flu took a significant step closer to Europe yesterday after three people, two of them children, tested positive for the virus in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Preliminary tests showed that two young brothers and an adult had contracted the H5N1 strain, 600 miles west of the city of Van where Turkey's first outbreak of the disease in humans occurred last week.</b>

Last week Fatma Kocyigit, 15, and her brother Mehmet Ali, 14, from the Kurdish village of Dogubayazit, near Van, became the first bird flu victims in Turkey, and the first human fatalities from the disease outside east Asia. Tests are still being carried out to determine if their 11-year old sister Huly also died from H5N1. If confirmed, the third sibling and the three Ankara cases would bring the total of bird flu cases in humans in Turkey to 10. Seven suspected cases are in hospital.
The deadly strain of bird flu had also been detected in birds in Romania and Croatia, but no human deaths there have been reported.

Doctors who treated the Kocyigit children said that they had almost certainly contracted bird flu by playing with the heads of dead chickens, but world health authorities are concerned that human exposure to the flu could lead to a mutation of the virus, allowing it to pass 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 detect any signs of transmission between humans. 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."

According to CNN, two of the three patients in Ankara were taken to hospital after contact with dead wild birds.

Across Turkey, dozens of people who have recently been in close contact with fowl are in hospital with suspected bird flu. Reports of new cases triggered panic yesterday as the government rushed to counter the threat of further infection.

A delegation of WHO representatives, European health officials and the Turkish health minister, Recep Akdag, travelled to Van yesterday to assess the situation. "This is a disease in fowl, the people who are in contact with them are at risk," Mr Akdag said. "This is the problem which must be addressed."

Russia's chief epidemiologist warned against travel to Turkey, a popular destination for Russian holidaymakers.

The prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has appealed to Turks to help in a mass poultry cull to stop the advance of the virus. But in Dogubayazit, home of the Kocyigit children, local people have accused the authorities of being slow to act, and despite the promise of compensation, many farmers in the impoverished regions of eastern Turkey have proved unwilling to sacrifice their only source of income.

A journalist with the Reuters news agency yesterday reported that chickens still roamed freely in streets of the village, and saw other birds escaping as officials attempted to bury them alive in pits.

Health workers have found it hard to explain the potential dangers to local farmers, whose flocks are often their most valuable possession. Many locals have refused to destroy birds which do not appear to be sick.

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<B><center>CHINA

08:11, January 09, 2006
<a href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/09/eng20060109_233793.html">People's Daily Online</a>

<font size=+1 color=purple>Emergency response plan to fortify gov't against incidents</font></center>
The Songhua River pollution, the bird flu outbreaks and the mine accidents that happened one after another have made it urgent for Chinese government to build up an emergency response system.

A general plan on emergency response, issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, on Sunday, will become the guidance on prevention and treatment of various incidents in China. </b>

Based on lessons and experiences at home and abroad, the emergency response plan aims to increase the government's capability to protect public safety, deal with unexpected incidents, minimize the losses of the incidents, maintain social stability, and promote the harmonious and sustainable development of the country.

In 2005, natural disasters combined in China left 2,475 people dead, with 15.7 million displaced, 2.264 million houses collapsed and direct economic losses totaling 204.21 billion yuan (25.53 billion U.S. dollars), the most serious in recent years, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Ding Ningning, an official with the State Development and Reform Commission, said that a powerful anti-public incident ability could help to polish a confident and mature government image.

The plan stipulates that the State Council is the highest organ in the management of emergency response. An office in charge of emergency response management will be set up by the State Council to collect information of various incidents and coordinate the emergence response work.

Expert team will be formed if needed to offer suggestions on decisions during the emergency response work.

The plan applies to dealing with serious incidents involving several provinces. So far, all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China have made corresponding plans. Therefore, an elementary emergency response framework has been set up in China.

Incidents are divided into four categories by the plan, including natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents and social safety incidents.

According to their character, degree of harm, controlling possibility and scale of influence, the incidents are ranked as Class I (most serious), Class II (serious), Class III (relatively serious) and Class IV (ordinary). The alarm of the incidents will be shown with colors of red, orange, yellow and blue respectively.

The plan stipulates that if a Class I or Class II incident happens, it should be reported to the State Council within four hours.

The information about incidents should also be open to public timely and accurately. The public should be informed of the class of the incident, its starting time, possible influence scale and responding measures, according to the plan.

The alarm information will be released on radio, TV, newspapers, Internet and other media. Special methods will be taken to make sure the elderly, the patients in hospitals and teachers and students in schools can get the information, the plan says.

The plan also clarifies the responsibilities of the departments in the fields of manpower, finance, material resources, transportation, medical care, communications and so on.

Those who make outstanding contributions to emergency response will be awarded, while those who fail to report the true state of incidents or cover up accidents will be punished according to law and regulations, the plan says.

After the Songhua River pollution incident in 2005, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) failed to pay due attention to the incident and has underestimated its possible serious impact.

The director of SEPA Xie Zhenhua resigned for the environmental incident, and he is another ministerial official after the then Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong, who were removed from their posts for failing to respond properly to 2003's SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis.

"An accountable government should not only be able to cope with public affairs in normal conditions, but to respond promptly and calmly towards emergencies," said Wang Angsheng, the director of disaster control committee under China's think tank, China's Academy of Sciences.

Keep up the good work.
Do you have any other sources for the quarantine report?
My understanding is that there is still no H2H transmission, but even very slight contact with sick birds can pass the disease.
Did the BF come to Ankara from Van? The translations are a little cloudy to me.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Bird flu virus reaches Istanbul</font>

01-08-2006, 18h25
<A href="http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=100731">www.turkishpress.com</a></center>
ANKARA (AFP)
Bird flu has been detected in dead chicken in Istanbul, confirming the westward movement of the virus, which has already killed two people in eastern Turkey, officials said.</b>

Samples from chicken found dead in the district of Kucukcekmece, on Istanbul's European side, tested positive for avian influenza, but it was not yet clear whether it was the lethal H5N1 strain, agriculture ministry spokesman Faruk Demirel told AFP.

Istanbul is the westernmost point of Turkey where the virus has been detected since last month when it resurfaced in remote regions, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the east.

The first outbreak, in a fowl farm in the northwest, was successfully contained in October.

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

Seven other Turks, all but one of them children, <b>have been <u>confirmed as H5N1 carriers</u>, including three cases in the capital Ankara.</b>

Earlier Sunday, officials reported cases of bird flu in two other western regions.

Dead chickens in two villages in Zonguldak province on the Black Sea coast, tested positive for the disease, Governor Yavuz Erkmen told Anatolia news agency, without specifying whether it was H5N1.

In the province of Yozgat, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Ankara, officials said the virus was detected in dead fowl in at least one village.

Three villagers who fell ill after eating sick chicken were hospitalized, Anatolia reported. But Yozgat Governor Gokhan Sozer said the patients had caught colds and described them as being in good condition.

The agriculture ministry said bird flu among winged animals had now been confirmed in 10 of Turkey's 81 provinces.

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Are H5N1 Postive Siblings in Turkey Aysegul and Yusuf Ozkan?</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01080603/H5N1_Turkey_Ozkan_Siblings.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
January 8, 2006</center>
The new cases at the university hospital in Van, which treats the majority of people suspected of being infected, were identified as a girl and a boy, aged nine and three. </b>

The above report appears to be describing two of the Ozkan sublings, Aysegul Ozkan (9) and Yusuf Ozkan (3). Both were among the first 3 Ozkans admitted and both were in intensive care, along with Yusuf Tunc (5) the other Dogubeyazit resident who was H5N1 confirmed. Other media reports also indicated that the 3 year-old and 9 year-old who were confirmed were siblings.

Thus, the confirmed cases are the cases admitted earliest and the two Ozkans that are positive suggest that many or all of the other 8 family members who are hospitalized will also be H5N1 confirmed. <b> These data extend the observations that the H5N1 infected patients are frequently in clusters and the clusters are large and clustered, especially the initial cases from Dogubeyazit.</b>

<u>These data suggest that H5N1 in Turkey is being efficiently transferred. In some cases this transfer may be from a common source. However, some media reports indicate that the first member of the Kocygit family to die, Mohammed Ali, may have been infected as early as December 18 and he showed symptoms prior to his siblings, <b>raising the possibility of human-to-human transmission</b></u>. Similarly, the two Ozkans that appear to be H5N1 confirmed were also admitted first. More details on disease onset dates would be useful, <b>but bimodal distribution of onset dates signal human-to-human transmission, which would be expected if transmission efficiencies were increased.</b>

The large number of human cases being reported across Turkey indicates many people are being infected directly or indirectly by migratory birds, which have caused a flurry of outbreaks in poultry stretching from eastern Turkey to Istanbul. Migration of these outbreaks to the south is expected, which would impact countries in the Middle East as well as the heavily attended Haj, where large numbers of people are living and gathering in close quarters.

More information on H5N1 sequences and onset dates and relationships of patients in clusters would be useful

see that little thing? That is a snowball. It's at the top of a hill. Pay close attention and see what happens as it heads towards the bottom of the hill.

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<B><center>9 January 2006

<font size=+0 color=green>7 TURKS BATTLING BIRD FLU </font>
<font size=+1 color=red>Fears as toll grows </font>
By Karen Bale
<A href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16562502%26method=full%26siteid=66633%26headline=7%2dturks%2dbattling%2dbird%2dflu%2d-name_page.html">www.dailyrecord.co.uk</a></center>
FEARS were growing last night that bird flu in humans is spreading throughout Turkey - after seven new cases emerged.

Preliminary tests for the deadly H5N1 strain on an adult and two children in the capital Ankara proved positive yesterday. </b>

These are the first suspected cases outside the eastern city of Van, where a fiveyear- old boy and a girl, eight, are in hospital believed to be suffering from the virus.

Initial tests on another brother and sister in Van - which is 600 miles from Ankara - were also positive, health officials said.

The news comes just days after Van mother Marifet Kocyigit lost three of her children - Fatma, 15, Hulya, 11, and Mehmet, 14 - apparently to bird flu.

The fatalities were the first thought to be caused by the virus outside the 74 deaths in east Asia, where more than half those infected perished.

And Dr Gencay Gursoy, of the Istanbul Physicians Association, said: "Turkey and the world are facing the threat of a serious infection."

But although the World Health Organisation are probing whether the virus had been transmitted from human to human, health minister Recep Akdag said: "This is a disease in fowl.

"The people who are in contact with them are at risk. This is the problem which must be addressed."

Authorities insist the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry.

But chickens are often a valuable possession among families in the poor eastern region and many are refusing to hand them over.

These cases really seem to be popping up VERY fast in Turkey. I'm no expert on this bird flu stuff but this seems very different from the reports from Asia. Does it not?

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Alarm in Turkey </font>

January 9 2006
<A href="http://www.godubai.com/gulftoday/article.asp?AID=23&Section=Editorial">www.godubai.com</a></center>
PRELIMINARY investigations in Turkey have shown that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is slowly spreading there. Confirmed cases have been reported from the eastern and south-eastern provinces. </b>

The virulent strain has already killed two teenagers who were siblings. The third sibling also died but tests are yet to establish the cause. With the recent findings the number of people infected with this deadly strain has risen to seven. In the eastern part of Turkey another 20 are undergoing treatment for suspected bird flu.

The deaths of the two teenagers, the first human fatalities from H5N1 outside Asia, indicates that the dreaded disease has finally made its appearance in this part of the world. Obviously there is panic in Turkey, even though there is no evidence that the disease has begun to spread among humans. There are reports of worried residents flocking to poorly-equipped hospitals seeking treatment for symptoms. This has put heavy strain on the medical infrastructure, especially in the interior areas of Turkey. People are angry because they don't get the care they expect. Lack of awareness about the disease is also complicating the situation. Thinking they could stop the spread of disease many residents are slaughtering poultry themselves without protective clothing.. But little do they realise that exposure to live birds is foolhardy, especially when birds in Turkey have recently been tested positive for H5N1. The family of the infected children had kept poultry at their home, which also shows the dangers of close contact with birds.

It's true that the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesome destruction of poultry and fowl in the affected area. But it has to be carried out by trained personnel because people who are in contact with infected birds are at great risk. There are also reports of reluctance on the part of many residents to destroy poultry. In one of the impoverished areas in Turkey authorities could not convince the residents about the danger of close contact with fowl and the need to destroy all birds, both sick and healthy. That they had to retreat with a warning that they would return with police shows the predicament of the authorities who are struggling to finish an emergency cull of poultry to contain the virus. Birds in Romania, Russia and Croatia have also been tested positive for H5N1 and this is a worrying prospect.

It's not clear whether Turkey has enough stockpile of anti-viral drugs to treat those who fall ill in the event of a pandemic. Although World Health Organisation has said that there is no need to panic, the situation in Turkey needs to be monitored closely.

Rams82 said:

These cases really seem to be popping up VERY fast in Turkey. I'm no expert on this bird flu stuff but this seems very different from the reports from Asia. Does it not?

Click to expand...

It does seem that way...

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<B><center>Monday, January 9, 2006. 4:38pm (AEDT)
<A href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1544238.htm">www.abc.net.au</a>

<font size=+1 color=purple>Indonesia records 12th bird flu death</font></center>

Indonesia's Health Ministry says a 39-year-old Indonesian man died of bird flu earlier this month, citing the results of a local test.

If confirmed by outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organisation, the case would bring total known deaths in Indonesia from the H5N1 virus to 12.</b>

"We got the local test result around Friday. He had contact with dead chickens," Hariadi Wibisono, the ministry's director of eradication of animal-borne diseases, said.

The man died on January 1 in a hospital designated to treat bird flu patients.

The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily between humans at the moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability and set off a global pandemic which might kill millions of people.

The H5N1 virus has killed more than 70 people in south-east Asia and China since 2003.

Several children have also died in Turkey, the first human cases outside East Asia.

The majority of victims in East Asia and Turkey have died after contact with infected birds.

Indonesia's Government said last week the country needed nearly $US1 billion over two years to fight bird flu.

The virus has been found in poultry in two-thirds of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

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<B><center>Monday, 9 January 2006, 05:43 GMT
<A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4593892.stm">news.bbc.co.uk</a>

<font size=+1 color=red>Bird flu team probes Turkey cases</font> </center>

Dogubayazit in eastern Turkey has seen several cases
International bird flu experts have come to the eastern Turkish region of Van, to try to find out how quickly the deadly H5N1 strain is spreading.
The experts will advise the government how best to fight the disease. </b>

Earlier, two children and an adult tested positive for H5N1 in Turkey's capital Ankara, the city's governor, Kemal Onal, said.

Two more children in Van have tested positive, days after five people died in the village of Dogubeyazit.

Panic likely

Turkish officials stress there is no sign yet the virus has mutated into a much-feared form that could pass between humans.

The Ankara outbreak has not been confirmed by World Health Organization labs, but is still likely to trigger panic, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Turkey.

If confirmed, the cases will be Turkey's first outside the eastern region of Van, about 1,000km (620 miles) away.

Bird flu

Our correspondent says the three people who tested positive in Ankara come from a town about one hour's drive from the city.

It is not clear how they could have contracted the disease, although there were reports of ducks in the town having the virus.

The results will now be checked by scientists at the WHO laboratory in London.

In the eastern town of Dogubeyazit, in Van, three children from the same family died last week, at least two of them from the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain which has killed more than 70 people in South-East Asia.

Tests are still under way on the third child to see if she also died from H5N1.

All three children - a 14-year-old boy and his 11 and 15-year-old sisters - were living in close contact with poultry and there is still no evidence that the disease has begun to spread between humans.

Nonetheless a local hospital has been besieged by panicked residents seeking treatment for symptoms.

Twenty people remain in hospital in the city of Van receiving treatment for suspected bird flu.

An emergency cull of all poultry in Dogubeyazit has been called, but there have been accusations that it is agonisingly slow.

The WHO has attempted to play down fears of the disease, as Turkish officials sought to defend themselves from accusations they were slow to act. Officials have now asked residents to dig pits and bury their own birds.

Turkey fights back

Officials say they have had difficulty persuading people in the impoverished rural region to deliver all of their poultry up for slaughter, whether the birds appear healthy or not.

Meanwhile Iran, which shares a border with eastern Turkey, has closed one of its border crossings, officials told Turkey's Anatolia state news agency.

Indonesian authorities confirmed on Monday that a 39-year-old man died of bird flu on 1 January, after he had come into contact with chickens that had died from the deadly strain.

If confirmed by the WHO as a victim of H5N1, the case would be the 12th fatality from the strain in Indonesia.

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<center>

I started out full of wizz and vinager this evening



But the news is still coming in; and I find myself
about to keel over on the keyboard in front of me.



I'll try and finish my news run in the morning
Zzzzzzzzzzzz!</center>

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[sigh] - another news article came on just as I was about to log out of my news sites... Now! Fer real folks! I'm a headed fer the barn, staggering and stumbling - But I'll make it, I hope.........


<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Bird Flu Reports Multiply in Turkey, Faster Than Expected</font>

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: January 9, 2006
<A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/international/europe/09flu.html">www.nytimes.com</a></center>
ISTANBUL, Jan. 8 - A flurry of new reports of avian influenza in humans and animals emerged Sunday from various parts of Turkey, and international health officials said they had come to believe that the disease had been simmering in the eastern part of the country for months, even though it was reported there only in late December.</b>

A team of experts, including representatives of the World Health Organization, accompanied by the Turkish health minister, was scrambling to determine the full extent of the outbreaks. The group was heading by bus on Sunday to the worst-hit areas in and around the city of Van, where the airport was closed by severe weather.

Four children from villages near Van, in remote eastern Turkey, have now been confirmed by the W.H.O. to be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the first human cases outside of East Asia. Like many people in those poor villages, the four had had close contact with birds, health officials said, and probably were infected as a result.

Turkish officials announced Sunday that tests had confirmed five new cases of H5N1, two more in Van and three around Ankara - two young brothers and an elderly man, according to Turan Buzgan, the Health Ministry's basic sciences director.

The Ankara cases have the most alarming implications because bird flu had not been previously reported in that part of the country, and it is a relatively well-off area, where it is not the norm for humans and animals to live under one roof. The infected boys had contact with dead wild ducks, and the man with a dead chicken, said a ministry spokesman.

In addition to the confirmed cases, some 50 other people suspected of having the disease have been hospitalized, at least 30 in the Van area and about 20 in Ankara, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

The W.H.O. said it had not been notified of the latest test results, and so could not confirm the new cases, said Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman in Geneva. But she added that international scientists studying the H5N1 virus samples from Turkey had detected no changes that might make it more contagious to humans. "It seems very much like the virus we've seen in Western China," she said.

The cluster of cases in Turkey is extraordinary and a cause for concern, scientists said. In all of East Asia, where the disease has been running rampant in birds for years, only about 140 people have been infected.

New reports of outbreaks among animals across Turkey were also rapidly increasing. By evening, the Agriculture Ministry said 10 of 81 provinces were reporting the disease in birds, up from 3 just a few days ago.

"Things are unfolding quickly, but we do not yet know how extensive the outbreaks are," said Juan Lubroth of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

"But we now believe and expect they have been going on for some time," he said, starting perhaps as early as October or November.

In light of the nine human cases confirmed in the last four days, the failure of the Turkish officials to detect and publicize animal outbreaks quickly could have been a deadly oversight.

Humans almost always acquire bird flu through close contact with sick birds. In areas with known outbreaks, all domestic birds are supposed to be culled quickly, and farming families in the surrounding area must take extreme precaution in handling poultry to prevent human infections. Because there were no earlier reports of bird flu in the area, the patients in Van and Ankara had no way of knowing they were at risk.

In one village near Van, Dogubayazit, four children from the same family have apparently come down with the disease after playing with chicken heads. Among the six cases in the area confirmed to have H5N1, two have died. A third also died, although her first test was negative. Ms. Cheng of the W.H.O. said the test was being repeated because it is "complicated and sometimes falsely negative," and circumstances implicate the H5N1 virus.

Although H5N1 does not now readily spread between humans, scientists are worried it may obtain that ability through biological processes, setting off a worldwide pandemic.

The international health officials said that while Turkey had responded swiftly to its first outbreak of bird flu, which occurred in the more developed western part of the country, in October, government officials had been far less efficient in dealing with the disease in the impoverished east.

Seems like it's spreading more rapidly between the birds AND also more rapidly between birds and humans.

Next jump - H2H? May happen quite soon at this rate! It does seem to be spreading much more rapidly than it has in the past in Asia. Maybe this virus gets more virulent with the colder temperatures?

At any rate - this is not looking good.

Wonder what they'll find out about it this week...

Dutch, I think you are in for a very busy year.
I think I read that some of the infected people were Kurds.
It will be difficult for the Turkish government to act quickly in the Kurdish areas.

Bulgaria says prepared for bird flu outbreak

09 Jan 2006 12:40:51 GMT

Source: Reuters

SOFIA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Bulgaria fears the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu is likely to emerge soon in birds on its territory following a rash of cases in neighbouring countries, but said it was ready to handle an outbreak.

The virus has killed birds in dozens of villages in Bulgaria's northern Black Sea neighbour Romania, while to the south Turkey has reported the first human cases outside of China and southeast Asia.

Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said the latest cases near Romania's Danube delta region were nearing Bulgaria's border and his office was now bracing for the discovery of the virus.

"The possibility of this is high, because there are already 31 cases of outbreak (in Romania) and the last two are from an area very close to the north east (Bulgarian) town of Silistra," Kabil told private television BTV.
"We are ready to identify, isolate and destroy bird flu centres if it emerges."

The three countries lie along the Pontic migratory route which stretches along the western border of the Black Sea.

Scientists believe wild birds travelling along the route carried the virus south from Siberia to Romania's Danube delta and Turkey, where the first cases emerged in October.

Bulgaria has already banned poultry imports from its neighbours, forbidden the hunting of wild birds, told farmers to keep domestic fowl indoors and is conducting regular surveillence in wetland areas on the migratory bird population.

Officials are also conducting strict checks and disinfecting cars crossing its border from Turkey, where local authorities say three children died from bird flu last week.

Kabil said he had sent veterinary experts to both Turkey and Romania to assess the risk of the disease spreading.

H5N1 kills domestic fowl quickly and can decimate entire flocks overnight. It is difficult for humans to catch but is known to have killed 76 people since 2003 and, once contracted, is fatal to around 50 percent of its victims.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form more easily transmissible among humans and spark a global pandemic that could kill tens of millions of people.

Turkey confirms 14 bird flu cases including 3 deaths
09 Jan 2006 11:45:32 GMT

Source: Reuters

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Turkey's Health Minister Recep Akdag said on Monday a total of 14 people across the country have tested positive for bird flu, including three children already dead.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far confirmed four cases in Turkey, including two of the deaths. The WHO said other cases had not so far been verified by laboratory tests.

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<B><center><font size=+1 color=red>Indonesia treating new suspected human case of bird flu</font>

January 9 2006
<A href="http://www.brunet.bn/news/bb/mon/jan9w5.htm">www.brunet.bn</a></center>
JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesian doctors said Sunday they were 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 Sunday after falling ill with pneumonia-like symptoms on Thursday, said hospital spokesman Ilham Patu.</b>

Patu told AFP that Mukti had been in contact with her neighbour's dead chickens in her east Jakarta home earlier this week.

Doctors were conducting tests to determine whether she was carrying the deadly virus.

At least 11 people have died of avian influenza in Indonesia. Six other human cases have been confirmed as, but the patients have either recovered or are still being treated.

Patu said local tests on a man who died earlier this week, which confirmed that he had died of bird flu, were to be sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday.

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.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, was accused of covering up initial outbreaks of bird flu. Most victims in the archipelago nation have so far hailed from densely populated Jakarta and its surrounds, where many people live in close proximity to poultry, providing ideal conditions for the virus to pass to humans.

Scientists warn that continued contact between infected birds and humans may eventually result in the virus mutating into a form that could be easily passed on by humans, sparking a pandemic with a potential toll of millions.

Five more infected with bird flu in Turkey

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/13582904.htm]

BENJAMIN HARVEY
Associated Press

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey - Preliminary tests showed five more people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in Turkey, a Health Ministry official said Monday. The new results raise the number of human cases in Turkey to 15. Not all have been confirmed yet by the World Health Organization.

A WHO official warned that the chances the disease may mutate into a dangerous form increase with every new human infection.

Turkish labs detected H5N1 in the five new cases, which were discovered in four separate provinces, according to a Health Ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

In addition, more than 60 people with flu-like symptoms who had come in close contact with fowl had been hospitalized around the country by Monday and were undergoing tests, officials said.

"The more humans infected with the avian virus, the more chance it has to adapt," Guenael R.M. Rodier, a senior WHO official for communicable diseases, said during a visit to Dogubayazit, a largely Kurdish town bordering Iran where three children from the same family have died.

Health officials are watching the disease's spread and development for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between people and spark a pandemic. Apart from confirming the Turkish cases, WHO labs are also watching for genetic changes in the virus that could allow it to move from human to human.

The four cases confirmed so far involved people who were in close contact with fowl, suggesting they were likely infected directly by birds, health officials say.

The five newest cases came from four provinces in eastern and central Turkey, as well as the Black Sea coast, according to Health Ministry official Turan Buzgan.

Ten people earlier had tested positive for H5N1 in tests in Turkish labs, four of which have been confirmed by the WHO.

Those four include two siblings who died last week in the eastern city of Van - the first confirmed fatalities caused by the virus outside eastern Asia, where 74 people have been killed by H5N1 since 2003. A third sibling also died in Van of bird flu, but a WHO lab has not yet confirmed H5N1.

"It's clear that the virus is well established in the region," Rodier said. "The front line between children and animals, particularly backyard poultry, is too large," he said, adding that contact between poultry and people must be minimized.

On Sunday, three H5N1 cases were reported in Ankara, and two more in Van. Ankara is about 600 miles west of Van.

The cases in Ankara included two young brothers and a 65-year-old man, who tested positive for H5N1 in preliminary tests by Turkish labs.

The boys in Ankara - aged 5 and 2 - caught the virus while playing with gloves their father had used to handle two dead wild ducks outside Ankara. An 8-year-old girl hospitalized in Van with what Turkish labs showed was H5N1 apparently contracted the virus by hugging and kissing dead chickens.

On Monday, Health Minister Recep Akdag arrived in Dogubayazit, where most of the cases have originated, along with WHO officials.

"If as a community, we take the necessary measures and educate (people) we can in a short period of time combat this," Akdag said. "We will manage to slow its progress."

He said, however, that because Turkey was on the path of migratory birds, the country would continue to be at risk in years to come, and urged people to abandon raising poultry in backyards.

"The earlier we realize this, the earlier we will be rid" of bird flu.

Akdag climbed up a snowy hill to visit Zeki Kocyigit, whose three children died of the disease. As he left, villagers shouted complaints about a lack of doctors.

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

Health officials believe the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry in the affected area. But they often run into problems in rural areas such as Dogubayazit, where villagers resist turning in their animals.

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 not sick. The workers could not persuade her to part with the chickens and left, saying they would return with police.

In Istanbul, where bird flu in fowl was detected in some neighborhoods on the city's outskirts, authorities imposed a quarantine, banning the entry and exit of poultry and disinfecting people leaving the area.

---

Associated Press reporters Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, and Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

bird flu threat to hajj pilgrims

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

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 banÂÂned 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.
Snip

I thought the Turkish authorities weren't worried-ya right

Is this a "Me thinks he doth protest too much" situation"? Thanks Dutch, rest well as long as you can.

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<B><center>January 09, 2006]
<A href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-china-announces-8th-human-case-bird-flu-xinhua-/2006/jan/1271483.htm">www.tmcnet.com</a>

<font size=+1 color=brown>China announces 8th human case of bird flu: Xinhua+</font></center>
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BEIJING, Jan. 10_(Kyodo) _ China's Ministry of Health said Monday it has confirmed the country's eighth human case of H5N1 bird flu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The infected was a 6-year-old boy surnamed Ouyang in Guiyang County of central China's Hunan Province, according to a report released by the ministry.</b>

The infected boy is being hospitalized and his condition is stable, the ministry was quoted as saying.

Investigation found domestic foul raised by Ouyang's family haddied before he showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Dec. 24, the ministry said, adding Ouyang's samples tested positive of H5N1 virus by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China.

Ouyang has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization and the Chinese government, the ministry said, according to the report.

Previously, the ministry had reported seven human cases of bird flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, one fatality in southeast China's Fujian Province, two recovered cases in central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province, respectively, one in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

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[note]: This article is from a Kurdish Blogger - and I think it is one of the first times i have posted a blog article. But it is intersting, I wonder; will H5N1 cause conflict between the Turks and the Kurds?

<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Kurdish anger over bird flu in Turkey</font>

January 9 2006
<A href="http://moderntribalist.blogspot.com/2006/01/kurdish-anger-over-bird-flu-in-turkey.html">moderntribalist.blogspot.com</a></center>
Panic gave way to anger in the eastern town of Dogubeyazit, home of Turkey's first bird flu deaths, as residents accused the government of letting them down because they are Kurds.

"The authorities are not interested in us because we're Kurds," said Mehmet Gultekin, a local Kurdish leader. </b>

He said they were receiving help only from municipal workers sympathetic to the Kurds in the town of around 56,000 inhabitants.

Gultekin pointed to a group of farmers who had gathered in front of the local agriculture building, clutching bags of chickens.

"Look, people are bringing their chickens here themselves," he said. They are working while the government workers sleep."

A team of experts from the World Health Organization was expected Monday in the mainly Kurdish town where two children died last week from bird flu. A third child from the same family also died but the cause of her death is yet to be established.

While street vendors picked up their trade in Dogubeyazit on Monday and farmers led sheep and cows to be sacrificed for a Muslim festival, around 40 people started to gather calmly at dawn at the local hospital.

"We have had quite a few dead chickens at our place, and now my son and daughter have a fever and they say they have pains in the chest," a local resident, Vayettin Bahrir, told AFP. "I brought them to be sure that it's not bird flu," he said, indicating 10-year-old Ali and six-year-old Ceylan, who walked with him to the hospital.

Dogubeyazit, in an isolated, mountainous region near Turkey's border with Iran, has little industry. Most people in make a living from raising cattle, a little agriculture and trading alcohol and cigarettes with Iran.

"I come from the village of Buyretti, near the Iranian border," said Mehmet Salih Demirhan. "We have 300 or 400 chickens and no official or vet has come to visit us. I learned about the disease on television and I started to slaughter my animals."

Many people waiting to see doctors said that they were not being treated in the same way as their western neighbours.

"This is the east. That's how it is," Demirhan said.

One man in the hospital queue said the hospital had only four doctors, and they were not all there at the moment.

"In the west (where the first Turkish case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected in October), the birds were killed immediately. Here, we had to wait for people to die," he said.

Municipal teams struggling to collect the poultry said they were doing their best with limited means.

"We're doing what we can, but there aren't enough of us," said Ibrahim Giglal, a local employee dressed in the increasingly familiar white overall for protection from the deadly bird flu.

He said that 12 teams of three members each had collected 16,000 chickens in the town of Dogubeyazit, and confirmed that none of the 84 surrounding villages had been investigated yet.

"Each province has called up all its staff, so we cannot get reinforcements," he added.

Five more people have tested positive for the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turkey, health officials said Monday, raising to 14 the number of people confirmed as infected with the disease.

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<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Turkish health minister mobbed in bird-flu region</font>

Nicolas Cheviron | Dogubeyazit, Turkey
09 January 2006 06:14
<A href="http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news&articleid=260888">www.mg.co.za</a></center>
Turkey's Health Minister, Recep Akdag, on a visit on Monday to the eastern town of Dogubeyazit, home of Turkey's first bird-flu deaths, was mobbed by residents who accuse the government of neglecting them because they are Kurds.

Accompanied by a delegation of experts from the World Health Organisation, Akdag tried to assure the area's majority Kurdish population that Ankara has not abandoned them.</b>

The minister, surrounded by a phalanx of police officers separating him from the crowd, told the local people that the government is committed to building a new hospital in the town and will provide advice on how to protect themselves from disease.

However, the mood of the crowd was angry and some booed the minister, shouting "We need doctors," and "Go see our villages with the dead chickens, where no one dares to step."

While teams from the Turkish agriculture ministry have been in Dogubeyazit for several days collecting and slaughtering poultry, about 80 villages in the surrounding area are still waiting for visits from the exterminators.

"The authorities are not interested in us because we're Kurds," said Mehmet Gultekin, a local Kurdish leader. He said they are receiving help only from municipal workers sympathetic to the Kurds in the town of about 56 000 inhabitants.

Gultekin pointed to a group of farmers that had gathered in front of the local agriculture building, clutching bags of chickens.

"Look, people are bringing their chickens here themselves," he said. They are working while the government workers sleep."

Earlier on Monday, the health minister went to give his condolences to the father of the three children who died last week, two of them from bird flu.

Dogubeyazit, in an isolated, mountainous region near Turkey's border with Iran, has little industry. Most people here make a living from raising cattle, a little agriculture and trading alcohol and cigarettes with Iran.

"I come from the village of Buyretti, near the Iranian border," said Mehmet Salih Demirhan. "We have 300 or 400 chickens and no official or vet has come to visit us. I learned about the disease on television and I started to slaughter my animals."

Many people waiting to see doctors said they are not being treated in the same way as their western neighbours.

One man in the hospital queue said the hospital has only four doctors, and they were not all there.

"In the west [where the first Turkish case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected in October], the birds were killed immediately. Here, we had to wait for people to die," Demirhan said.

Municipal teams struggling to collect the poultry said they are doing their best with limited means.

"We're doing what we can, but there aren't enough of us," said Ibrahim Giglal, a local employee dressed in the increasingly familiar white overall for protection from the deadly bird flu.

He said that 12 teams of three members each have collected 16 000 chickens in the town of Dogubeyazit, and confirmed that none of the 84 surrounding villages has been investigated yet.

While a Kurdish area, Dogubeyzit has not been a flashpoint for clashes between the Turkish army and the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which have centred mainly on south-east Turkey, nearer the border with Iraq.

Five more people have tested positive for the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turkey, health officials said on Monday, raising to 14 the number of people confirmed as infected with the disease. -- Sapa-AFP

Flu of 1918 was spread with return of military after WWII.

Here is the question. As this flu spreads what are the chances the military will bring it back. Remember Turkey is just across the border from Iraq.

I do not believe that it can be stopped. It takes time to incubate and then when it appears the patient has already had the opportunity to give it to others.

And, how do you separate the flu viruses. We have had a lot of flu in US especially West Coast. There have been two varieties spreading in California. A California strain and another one. So if a third variety is added how will anyone tell the difference without a test.

And, not everyone exposed will become so sick they need hospitalization. Or mild cases can spread it too. It is impossible to stop it once started.

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<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Human bird flu spreads in Turkey</font>

By Vincent Boland in Ankara
January 9 2006 12:37
<A href="http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3dd4efc6-810c-11da-8b55-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=80fdaff6-cbe5-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html">news.ft.com</a></center>
Five more cases of suspected bird flu were reported in Turkey overnight on Monday, officials said, as the disease spread around the country and <u>the government came under fire for its handling of the crisis</u>.</b>

The new incidents are in addition to five cases confirmed on Sunday as having tested positive for H5N1, the deadliest form of the virus. H5N1 has already caused the deaths of two children in eastern Turkey, and a third child who also died may have contracted it.

The health ministry said on Monday that two new cases had been found in human beings in Kastamonu, a town about 250km north of Ankara; and one each in Corum, about the same distance to the northeast of the capital; in Samsun, a major city on the Black Sea Coast; and in Van, a city in the east which is at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Turan Buzgan, director-general for basic health services at the health ministry, said the five people “have tested positive for bird flu”, although he did not give further details. Turkey carries out its own tests on samples from patients with bird flu symptoms, and these are then confirmed at a World Health Organisation laboratory in the UK.

So far, the WHO has confirmed only four definite cases of infection by the H5N1 virus in Turkey, including two of the three children in the east who died.

The spread of the virus around Turkey has taken the authorities by surprise and seriously hampered attempts to control the outbreak, which first erupted in late December in the remote village of Dogubayazit in eastern Turkey. Three of the cases announced on Sunday were from a town not far from Ankara, dashing the hopes of health ministry officials that the outbreak could be contained in the east.

A team from the WHO is attempting to reach the village, although its progress has been hampered by severe winter weather. Temperatures in that part of Turkey, which is very mountainous, can fall below minus 20 degrees Centigrade in the winter, and many poor families bring their poultry indoors.

The government has come in for some searching criticism of its handling of the crisis as it emerges that the outbreak of bird flu in eastern Turkey may have been detected some time before it was announced, potentially delaying any response. There have also been numerous reports of a lack of trained personnel in eastern Turkey to tackle the huge task of culling farm birds across the affected areas, because the villages are so remote and because some families are refusing to hand over their poultry, which are a source of wealth.

The WHO team visiting Turkey gave a mixed view of the official response, while Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, denied that there had been any attempt to play down the severity of the outbreak. “We attach great importance to giving transparent information on the issue of bird flu,” he said on Monday.

No signs of human-to-human bird flu in Turkey: WHO
Mon Jan 9, 2006 8:58 AM ET

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - There are no signs that the bird flu virus spreading in Turkey is being passed among humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The WHO has confirmed four human bird flu cases in Turkey, including the deaths of two siblings last week from Dogubayazit in the eastern part of the country.

"At the moment there is no element in this village indicating human-to-human transmission. It's typically similar to what we have seen so far (in Asia)," Guenael Roider, head of the WHO's Turkey mission, told Reuters Television. He was part of a team investigating the bird flu in the east of Turkey.

Turkish authorities say 14 people have tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus including three siblings from Dogubayazit who have died. The WHO said other cases had not so far been verified by laboratory tests.


edit oops.... http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...OL960319_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-HUMAN-SPREAD-DC.XML

rryan said:

No signs of human-to-human bird flu in Turkey: WHO
Mon Jan 9, 2006 8:58 AM ET

DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (Reuters) - There are no signs that the bird flu virus spreading in Turkey is being passed among humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The WHO has confirmed four human bird flu cases in Turkey, including the deaths of two siblings last week from Dogubayazit in the eastern part of the country.

"At the moment there is no element in this village indicating human-to-human transmission. It's typically similar to what we have seen so far (in Asia)," Guenael Roider, head of the WHO's Turkey mission, told Reuters Television. He was part of a team investigating the bird flu in the east of Turkey.

Turkish authorities say 14 people have tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus including three siblings from Dogubayazit who have died. The WHO said other cases had not so far been verified by laboratory tests.

Click to expand...

<A href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-01-09T164555Z_01_COL960319_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-HUMAN-SPREAD-DC.XML">Here's the link for the article rryan</a>

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Bird Flu Confirmed at Crimean Village</font>

Created: 09.01.2006 20:07 MSK (GMT +3
<A href="http://mosnews.com/news/2006/01/09/crimeabirdflu.shtml">MosNews</a></center>
Bird flu has been confirmed at poultry farms in the village of Primorsky at the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

Crimea’s Agriculture Minister Oleg Rusetsky quoted by Interfax news agency said on Monday the diagnosis was confirmed.</b>

The mass loss of poultry at the farms had been registered in the end of December and in the beginning of January but the diagnosis had not so far been confirmed.

“Today, the liquidation of the poultry (at the farms) is terminating. 171,500 head are to be liquidated,” the minister said.

At the same time, Russia’s top sanitary inspector, Gennady Onishchenko, said the country would start testing the bird flu vaccine with the help of volunteers.

Onishchenko also did not rule out that the border with Turkey would be closed due to the bird flu in the country. So far, the Russian tourists have no fear of the human cases of bird flu in Turkey.