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Bird flu spreads in Turkey

WHO official warns disease may mutate into a dangerous form

DOGUBAYAZIT (Turkey): Preliminary tests showed five more persons have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in Turkey, a Health Ministry official said on Monday, indicating the disease was spreading.

A World Health Organisation official warned on Monday that the chances the disease may mutate into a dangerous form increased with every new human infection.

Turkish laboratories detected H5N1 in the five new cases, which were discovered in four separate provinces, according to a Health Ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to speak to the media.

The new cases — which have not yet been confirmed by the World Health Organisation — raise the number of suspected and confirmed cases in Turkey to 15.

In addition, more than 60 persons with flu-like symptoms had been hospitalised around the country by Monday and were undergoing tests, officials said.

``The more humans infected with the avian virus, the more chance it has to adapt,'' Guenael R.M. Rodier, a senior WHO official for communicable diseases, said during a visit to Dogubayazit, a largely Kurdish town bordering Iran where three children have died.

``We may be playing with fire,'' he said.

Genetic changes

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. Apart from confirming the Turkish cases, WHO laboratories are also watching for genetic changes in the virus that could allow it to move from human to human.

The four cases confirmed so far involved people who were in close contact with fowl, suggesting they were likely infected directly by birds, health officials say.

The five newest cases came from four provinces in eastern and central Turkey, as well as the Black Sea coast, according to a Health Ministry official.

Ten persons earlier had tested positive for H5N1 in tests in Turkey, four of which have been confirmed by the WHO.

Those four include two siblings who died last week in the eastern city of Van — the first confirmed fatalities caused by the virus outside eastern Asia, where 74 persons have been killed by H5N1 since 2003. A third sibling also died in Van of bird flu, but a WHO lab has not yet confirmed H5N1.

On Monday, a fourth sibling, 6 years old, was released from Van hospital after tests indicated he did not have the disease. — AP

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