Turkish boy died from bird flu: doctor-(sister sick also)

reuteurs ^ | 1/4/06 | By Gareth Jones

[Flavius]

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Wednesday two people had been diagnosed with bird flu -- the first human cases outside Southeast Asia and China -- and a doctor said one of them, a 14-year-old boy, had died from the killer H5N1 strain.

Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag gave no specific details on the death, saying samples had been sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Britain for further tests, but a top WHO official said the boy had probably died from H5N1, which would mark a dramatic shift westwards for the deadly disease.

"We are pretty confident that unfortunately it is a human case of H5N1," Guenael Rodier, special adviser on communicable diseases at the WHO's European office, told Reuters.

Although more tests would be needed before anybody could be absolutely certain of the type of virus, Rodier said all the evidence pointed to it being the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 70 people in east Asia since 2003.

"(The boy) died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu," Huseyin Avni Sahin, head doctor at the hospital in the town of Van in eastern Turkey, near the Iranian and Armenian borders, told a televised news conference.

Doctors had originally said the boy, Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, died of pneumonia on Sunday in the Van hospital, about 800 km (500 miles) east of Ankara.

SISTER SERIOUSLY ILL

The boy's sister, Fatma, has also been diagnosed as having bird flu and remains seriously ill.

Nine other patients are being treated in the hospital with similar symptoms, but it is not known yet whether any have bird flu.

Akdag said all those receiving treatment in Van had come from the same district of Dogubayazit on the Armenian border.

"There is no occurrence of the disease among humans outside that district," Akdag told a news conference in Ankara.

People in the remote, rural area live mainly from raising poultry and other livestock.

Akdag said Turkey had sufficient stocks of medicine to combat the disease.

Turkey, which lies on the path of migratory birds that are believed to spread the virus, has suffered two outbreaks of the highly contagious disease among poultry in the past three months.

Veterinary experts across Europe have been on alert, culling birds and taking other precautionary measures since October outbreaks in Turkey and Romania.

Most of Europe imposed a ban on imports of Turkish live birds at the time, but the measure was subsequently eased.

Experts say a bird flu pandemic among humans could kill millions around the globe and cause massive economic losses.

The virus remains hard for people to catch, but there are fears it could mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans.

In Asia, measures against the disease have included the slaughter of millions of birds.

(Editing by Ralph Gowling)

[claptrap]

Chicken Farmer alert!

[little jeremiah]

Another article about it, more info.

[Judith Anne]

Elsewhere, I have read that there are locally 15 cases, more than one death, and that all respirators in the hospital are in use with more needed. I am guessing that more will be sent to them from other hospitals, although I don't know for sure.

Tamiflu was apparently not started until after 48 hours post hospitalization.

This is a significant outbreak, and fortunately for the rest of the world, Turkey has more open media than, say, China; if there are a large number of further cases in Turkey, we will know about it. Most of the patients had contact with or ate cooked poultry that had been sick. Most of the patients are children although one case is 35 yo.

Just a minute here, I'll give a link to the articles posted on the Turkey thread at curevents.

[Judith Anne]

Here's that link:

http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=33806&page=1&pp=40

[Judith Anne]

As far as is known, all the patients had contact with birds. None of the cases is known to have been transmitted from human to human.

Of course, the boy's death from H5N1 was initially denied, so who knows?

[Judith Anne]

Pinging the list to this article.

My apologies if I've inadvertantly left anyone off. Tried to keep up, but I've been between locations for a few months, couldn't always.

[Battle Axe]

I would guess that most folks in Turkey would have more sense than to eat a sick bird. But I wonder if the birds did not show symptoms. The only other way was to be in contact with poultry.

Remember the scare of something in the turkeys just before Thanksgiving about 1978 or 79?? What ever that was and I don't remember right now, was stored in the fat. We don't eat chicken lungs....at least I don't know of that practice.

[Myrddin]

Map Legend
Weekly influenza activity levels, as reported by state health departments.
			No Report No report available at this time.
			No Activity No reported cases of laboratory-confirmed or influenza-like illness.
			Sporadic Influenza cases, either laboratory-confirmed or influenza-like illness, are reported, but reports of outbreaks in places such as schools, nursing homes, and other institutional settings have not been received.
			Local Activity Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases are reported in one region, but influenza-like illness in other regions of the state is not increased. Reports of influenza outbreaks or influenza-like illnesses in at least two institutions (such as schools or nursing homes) in a single region also qualify as "local."
			Regional Outbreaks of either laboratory-confirmed influenza or influenza-like illness are occurring in geographic areas containing less than 50% of the state's population. A geographic area could be a city, county, or district.
			Widespread Outbreaks of either laboratory-confirmed influenza or ILI are occurring in geographic areas representing more than 50% of the state's population.
			Source: Influenza Branch, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

[Judith Anne]

Hi, and thanks for your response, FRiend.

I wonder if the kids were the ones who took care of most of the birds...this is a region of small farms, iirc...that would explain why mostly children are the sick ones...

[Judith Anne]

This is a problem...most doctors and hospitals don't test for the specific flu that patients come in with, because it's ASSUMED it isn't H5N1.

But if/when H5N1 comes to the USA, it's going to be underdiagnosed, just as the cases in Turkey were.

[Myrddin]

Healthcare isn't the brightest attribute of Idaho. I-15 will be moving the widespread activity from Utah to Idaho in short order. The long haul truckers will be bringing "samples" with them as they deliver their other goods.

[Battle Axe]

Excellent observation and interpretation. However, without real tests it may be like anthrax. In the accidental Russian release at Sverlosfstk (I can't ever spell that) there were a disproportion of young people who were exposed but did not contract the pathogen.

No one has ever come up with a good explanation. And one must wonder...genetic resistance in youth. Through natural selection resistance in youth, meant that they could reproduce.

[neverdem]

BFL Happy New Year!

[blam]

Thanks for the ping and link.

[Judith Anne]

Apparently, real tests WERE done. The initial ones from the upper respiratory tract were negative for H5N1, the later ones from the lungs were positive.

Which is why initial reports said there was no H5N1, and later reports retracted that.

[Dichroic]

Boy's sister has died also

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1552203/posts

[xVIer]

Thanks for the ping(HAPPY NEW YEAR!)...also seems to be in a second area. Originally posted by Ben555 on CE thread. Praying for the sick.


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17740690-38200,00.html

Six more bird flu cases suspected
From: Reuters
From correspondents in Ankara

January 05, 2006


SIX people have been sent to hospital in a second province in eastern Turkey with suspected bird flu, NTV commercial television reported today.
The news follows the death of two teenagers, a brother and sister, in Van hospital in eastern Turkey overnight in the first human cases of bird flu outside China and South-East Asia.

NTV said the six patients were from Igdir province on the Armenian border, just to the north of Agri province where the two dead children came from.

Advertisement:
Seven other people from Agri are also being treated in Van hospital for suspected bird flu.

[redgolum]

Thanks for the ping.

This has a lot of poultry farmers back home scared. My father in law butchered all his chickens because he was afraid the price would crash.