Originally published February 15 2006
Bird flu infects five more Turkish citizens
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The World Health Organization has learned from Turkish officials that five more human cases of bird flu infection have turned up, bringing Turkey's total to 15, though no cases of human-to-human transmission have been reported.
Preliminary tests showed five more people in Turkey have been infected with the deadly strain of bird flu that already killed two teenage siblings, officials said Monday as Indonesia and China each reported a new case.
The new results raise the number of human cases in Turkey to 15, although most have not yet been confirmed by the World Health Organization.
However, a WHO official said Turkish patients appear to be catching the disease from infected domestic birds, the normal path of the disease, and not from each other.
But he warned that the chance that bird flu may mutate into a dangerous form transmitted from person to person increases with every new human infection.
They were the first fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the virus outside East Asia, where 74 people have been killed by H5N1 since 2003.
Turkish officials said they are near wetlands on the paths of migratory birds, which have been carrying the disease from country to country.
Indonesian authorities reported Monday that a 39-year-old man with a history of contact with poultry had died of bird flu, according to preliminary tests.
In China, authorities said local tests showed that a 6-year-old boy in stable condition at a central China hospital has tested positive for the H5N1 strain.
Turkish labs have detected H5N1 in five new cases discovered in four provinces in eastern and central Turkey, as well as the Black Sea coast, Turkish officials said.
Scientists worry virus will mutate Health officials are watching the disease's spread and development for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between people and spark a pandemic.
A third sibling also died in Van of bird flu, but a WHO lab has not yet confirmed H5N1 as the cause.
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