10 in Turkey Diagnosed With Bird Flu

Jan. 9, 2006 — -- The deadly strain of bird flu -- H5N1 -- has been diagnosed in five more people in Turkey, but the World Health Organization said there are no signs that the bird flu virus is being passed from human to human in that country.

"It's clear that the virus is well-established in the region," said Guenael Rodier, head of the World Health Organization's Turkey mission.

A team of World Health officials has flown into the country to investigate the outbreak and find out how quickly the deadly H5N1 strain is spreading.

Ten people turned up positive for H5N1 when tested in Turkish labs, and WHO has confirmed four of these cases. Those four include two siblings who died last week.

All the victims have so far been in direct contact with infected poultry.

A 14-year-old boy in the eastern village of Dogubayazit was the first victim of the deadly strain. Shortly after he died, his 15-year-old sister was admitted to the hospital and became the second confirmed fatality. A third sibling has been hospitalized, and a British lab is examining the blood samples.

The teenagers reportedly contracted the disease after playing with the heads of chickens that had died from it. Deaths of chickens are known to have occurred in the Dogubayazit district at the end of last year.

"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,'' Roider said.

The deaths of the two teenagers are the first casualties from H5N1 outside east Asia, where a total of 142 human cases have been reported. China reported its eighth case of human bird flu on Monday, which as so far claimed the lives of 74 people in the past three years.

A mass culling of poultry in the provinces is still going on. Many people were angry at what they said was a slow response by Turkish officials.