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WHO: Human bird flu risk diminishing in Turkey
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-17 08:52
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it expected more human
cases of bird flu following the death of four people in Turkey, but said the
risks to humans were steadily diminishing.
The WHO confirmed laboratory test results in Ankara, which revealed that four
people from two families in eastern Turkey died of bird flu this month and a
further 16, largely children, were infected with the H5N1 virus.
"We do expect to see some (more) cases because it takes time before the virus
in birds has completely disappeared," Dr. Guenael Rodier, who heads the WHO
mission to Turkey and is an expert in communicable diseases, told Reuters in an
interview.
"We know that the risk remains with close interaction between people and
birds but we believe it is going down daily."
Human victims had been confined to East Asia until this month, when three
infected children from the same family died in eastern Turkey, showing the
deadly H5N1 strain had reached the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle
East.
Rodier said the four dead children from the village Dogubayazit caught the
deadly virus from contact to sick poultry in late Dec to early January before
authorities began a mass culling campaign and the public became aware of the
dangers.
The brother of Fatma Ozcan, who died on Sunday at a Van hospital from H5N1,
was also diagnosed to have caught the bird flu virus and was in serious
condition at a hospital in Van.
"The two siblings were very likely infected on January 1 when culling hadn't
yet started and public awareness was not yet there," he said.
Ducks began dying in the family's household flock on January 1, and on that
day, the girl, assisted by her brother, slaughtered a duck for food, the WHO
said.
Since then people have quickly gone to hospital and received antiviral
Tamiflu treatment, which have sharply reduced the risks to their lives, Rodier
said.
The virus is already endemic across parts of Asia and scientists fear the
H5N1 strain could mutate from a disease that affects mostly birds into one that
can pass easily between people, leading to a human pandemic.
The WHO said it would gradually shift its focus in Turkey to studying the
bird flu virus rather than emergency assistance.
"Now is the right time to look beyond outbreak control to look at medium- and
long-term efforts, particularly on the animal side, and also keep a constant
surveillance in Turkey and neighbouring countries," he said.
Bird flu has been found in wild birds and poultry over a third of Turkey's
territory, hitting villages from Istanbul at Europe's gates to Van near the
Iranian and Iraqi borders.
But Rodier said there was no indication the virus was beginning to pass from
humans to humans.
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has expressed fears that the
virus could take hold in neighbouring countries such as Georgia, Iran, Syria and
Armenia.
"Turkey shows that it could happen elsewhere (in the region)," Rodier said.
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