Red Alert for Bird Flu: Third Child Dies, Nine More Positive
The location of the outbreak is in Turkey, and the info covers much more than the title suggests.
ANKARA -- A third child from the same family has died of bird flu at a hospital in eastern Turkey.
About 25 people were being treated for possible bird flu symptoms early yesterday as health and agriculture authorities tried to manage more outbreaks across the east of Turkey.
Most of the sick came from the town of Dogubayazit, around 200km from Van, the last large town in Turkey before the Iranian border.
Hulya Kocyigit, 11, from Dogubayazit, died only a day after her 15-year-old sister, Fatma Kocyigit, succumbed to the disease on Thursday. Their brother Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, died on Sunday.
Another 25 to 30 people had come in for blood tests and had received medical care and left; one was on life support, the hospital official said.
New bird flu cases were detected in five areas in eastern and southeastern Turkey, and authorities have culled 7000 fowl in those areas, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said. "This is a serious problem," he added.
According to reports, the Kocyigit family took their fowl inside the house when temperatures fell at night and killed and ate the chickens when they got sick.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17747480%255E663,00.html
The religious holiday of Kurban Bayrami is celebrated in Turkey this year in just a few days, 10-11-12-13 January 2006. Bayrami is a four-day festival when sacrificial sheep are slaughtered and their meat distributed to the poor.
Info on Kurban Bayrami (from the link below):
Eid-ul-Adha, Kurban Bayrami in Turkish (the "Feast of Sacrifice") is the great festival of Islam. It is also known as Baqri-Eid (the "Cow Festival") because its most important feature is the sacrifice of an animal (cow, goat, sheep, or other appropriate beast) in commemoration of the ram sacrificed by Abraham in place of his son. In Muhammad's time a camel was usually the animal sacrificed. The command to perform sacrifices is given in Surah 22.36 and although no specific day is fixed in the Qur'an the sacrificing of animals was already practiced on the last day of the pilgrimage by the pre-Islamic Arabs and the institution was duly retained. A special prayer, similar to the Eid-ul-Fitr prayer, is also offered on this day before the animals are sacrificed.
Every Muslim home is obliged to offer a sacrifice on this day. The meat may be eaten by the family but a distribution of a generous share to the poor should also be made. As the two Eids (bayrams) are festive occasions, it is unlawful to fast on these days. Fasting on Eid-ul-Adha (Kurban Bayrami) would, in fact, defeat the whole object of the festival for food is to be eaten on this day with a cheerful heart in remembrance of God's bounty and provision for mankind.