Posted on 01/06/2006 4:42:43 AM PST by Mother Abigail
NATIONAL01.06.2006 Friday - ISTANBUL 14:33
Red Alert for Bird Flu
Turkey announced a red alert status in the fight against the bird flu, which it first encountered in October in the Kiziksa region of Balikesir, a Western Turkish town.
Following the deaths in Southeastern Asia, the first human losses in Europe took place in the district of Dogubayazit of Agri, an Eastern Turkish city. The death of Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, hospitalized at Van Yuzuncu Yil University Faculty of Medicine Hospital, his sister Fatma Kocyigit, 15 lost her life yesterday, and the youngest victim, Hulya Kocyigit, 11, early Friday.
18 patients are still under surveillance: nine of these are diagnosed with the bird flu. Three patients are in critical condition. Suspicions of bird flu emerged in Igdir, Kars, Erzurum, Agri and Van as well as in Sanliurfa and Yozgat. The destruction of suspicious fowl has started in these towns.
The Ministry of Health has sent additional doctors to the region, Mehdi Eker the Minister of Agriculture went to Van with expert teams. Eker held a wide scope meeting with governors in the region and announced that bird flu cases were determined in more places.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry declared a ban on bird hunting in Eastern Anatolia. As the cause of death, previously declared as pneumonia, was corrected to "bird flu", the eyes of the media turned to Dogubayazit.
Dogubayazit, a haven for migratory birds, has almost been entirely quarantined. Officials from the agriculture and health directorate took protective measures; special clothes and masks, as well as the tires of all vehicles entering the district disinfected one by one. Police and military officials are looking for birds throughout the area. Those who recently ate chicken rushed to hospitals yesterday making it difficult for doctors to work due, police reinforcements were called in some cases.
Security forces at local hospitals removed would-be patients as needed. The residents of Dogubayazit did not give up waiting in the queue despite the cold weather. As the virus reveals its deadly nature in some cases, those who previously hid their animals now called the directorates of agriculture requesting their removal.
Thousands of birds have been destroyed in the region. The European Union and the World Health Organization send a delegation to Turkey yesterday, foreign experts are expected to go to the region and conduct further examinations today.
Hulya Kocyigit, 11, was the sister of Mehmet Ali, 14, who died last weekend, and of Fatma, 15, who died on Thursday. The children lived in a remote rural district of eastern Turkey near the Armenian border. A six-year-old brother is also being treated for the same disease in the hospital.
Second note to self - don't play with sick dead birds.
First note was to not suck the blood from the lungs of birds so they can continue cock fighting.
I was just thinking those things myself when I heard it on the radio. Can't we send these kids barby dolls or at least some rubber chickens?
Bird flu ping.
At least Turkey is being open about it.
The above post is just a few of the posts coming in this morning, some are conflicting, some are not.
Until the situation is more defined and less fluid, it certainly demands close scrutiny.
MA
Following a request by the Ministry of Health, an initial team of experts from WHO, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Commission is travelling today [Thu 5 Jan 2006] to Turkey to collaborate with the authorities in their investigation of the situation.
Initial information about the confirmed cases suggests that the children acquired their infection following close contact with chickens. Deaths of chickens are known to have occurred in the Dogubayazit district near the end of 2005. Although no poultry outbreak has been officially reported in the district, a confirmed outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in chickens and ducks was reported on 27 Dec 2005 in the adjacent province of Igdir.
National authorities have informed WHO that the Dogubayazit district has been placed under quarantine; no people or animals are allowed to move in or out of the district. Culling operations are currently under way.
The 2 Turkish cases mark the 1st confirmed reports of human infection with avian influenza outside East Asia. Since January 2004, a total of 142 human cases of H5N1 infection have been reported in Viet Nam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and China. The cases in Turkey bring the number of affected countries to 6, from which 144 cases have now been reported.
Turkey reported its 1st outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry in mid-October 2005. That outbreak, which occurred in the northwestern part of the country, was attributed to contact between domestic poultry and migratory waterfowl. The outbreak in Igdir and other suspected outbreaks in this part of the country are thought to have occurred following introduction of the virus by migratory birds. The region, which has several large lakes, is known to lie along migratory routes.
Thank you for your objective assessment.
Does anyone know if the people infection live or work with birds? I have not seen that information shared. All they are saying is they are infected. Do people in certain areas live with their birds the same way they do in the Orient?
I knew a guy that traveled in Turkey a few years ago, and I don't remember him talking about the farmers living with the livestock like they do in China. If I can find his email I will try to ask him.
It is a Muslim country, so there are few pigs.
How do you tell if a dead bird is sick?
They turn green?
For example, if you have one Nixon in trouble, you probably have two Nixons in trouble, somewhere, and if the President is Johnson, and his brother is a troublesome alcoholic, odds are so is the President. You can quickly find several versions of the Kennedy/Lincoln name convergence.
So, here we have a country named Turkey. Bird Flu is floating about. "Turkey" shows up with Bird Flu.
We don't need to know the reasons ~ just that it happened.
If there were a nation named "Duck" it would be next. Since we don't, there's a good chance Peking is next due to the name convergence situation related to "Peking Duck".
There are several explanations for why this happens ~ one of them is that in reality "not all values are chosen". For example, you have a series of numbers, 1 to 1000. You look for examples of such numbers in nature and find "19" missing, or possibly even over-represented.
So would a gang of sick, dead birds suffer from gang-green?
Exactly!
What is the world total deaths so far?
I haven't been following it as closely as I could, I think less than 100.
Anyone?
Yes, I have seen reports of the infected children having played with sick poultry. No suggestion (yet) of human to human transmission in Turkey.
This means they think there is a chance that this is spreading from human to human. I would certainly like to know the "rest of the story".
It may be an overly optimistic way to look at things, but I can see how a small and containable outbreak NOW could even be beneficial. Presumably, H5N1 will follow a typical flu pattern and spread primarily during the flu "season". If so, perhaps the end of this flu season is close enough to stop an outbreak from becoming a world-wide pandemic this season.
So... We might see a Herald Wave this season, with the main event next flu season. With lots of luck, we might even be able to develop a vaccine based on the variants we see during the Herald Wave.
In the worst case scenario, of course, the time is fast approaching when some folks will buy a LOT of food/ammo and head for the hills...
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