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Anger, confusion in Turkey as bird flu
spreads
10.1.2006
By Umit Bektas
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DOGUBAYAZIT, Kurdistan-Turkey, Jan 10 (Reuters)
- Mukaddes Kubilay is an angry woman. The Kurdish
local councillor thinks the Turkish authorities have
neglected her impoverished province, making it more
vulnerable to the bird flu now ravaging it.
"State officials say they don't distinguish between
Turks and Kurds, but we feel the discrimination
here," she said.
Most people in this remote region near the Iranian
border are ethnic Kurds. Many of the women and some
of the men speak little or no Turkish, compounding
communication problems with officials as they battle
to stop the bird flu spreading.
"I can honestly say the situation here is 20 or 30
percent worse than in other places hit by the
disease. They (the authorities) are punishing the
people," said Kubilay.
"How will people survive after their chickens are
culled? What will they eat?", Kubilay asked. "The
government has to find economic alternatives for the
region."
Bird flu has killed three people in Turkey since
Jan. 1, all of them children from the same family in
Dogubayazit. A dozen more people have tested
positive for the virus nationwide, about half of
them in eastern Turkey.
But the disease is spreading to other regions. On
Tuesday, a patient was confirmed to have the disease
in the central province of Sivas.
Six people are being treated in hospital in Ankara
after they tested positive for the virus and nearly
two dozen are in hospital in Istanbul, the business
and tourism hub, suspected of having the disease.
Turkish media have accused the government of
responding too slowly to the virus, though criticism
has been somewhat muted by a major religious holiday
which has shut government offices and financial
markets for the whole week.
"IT IS SPREADING"
"Istanbul in quarantine," said the Milliyet daily on
Tuesday, carrying a picture of masked health workers
in wellington boots carrying sacks of poultry
through a suburb of Turkey's biggest city as excited
children look on.
World health experts fear the deadly H5N1 strain of
the virus will mutate enough to allow it to pass
easily from person to person. If it does so, it
could cause a catastrophic pandemic, killing
millions of people around the world.
Turkey's government has denied accusations of
negligence and says it has begun culling birds
wherever the virus has emerged. Culling began on
Tuesday in parts of prosperous southwest Turkey
previously unaffected by the virus.
Ankara has promised full and speedy compensation for
people handing over their poultry -- the sole source
of income for many poor families in eastern Turkey
-- and has begun broadcasting public health warnings
on television.
The government has also enlisted the help of mosques
to warn people of the dangers in this overwhelmingly
Muslim country.
"I especially appeal to our media to prevent panic
spreading among our people," Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan said this week.
Back in the east, Dogubayazit Mayor Rauf Ulusoy said
many people were hiding their poultry because they
did not believe government promises that they would
be fully reimbursed.
"Many people lie to our veterinary teams. We may
have to start fining people who refuse to cooperate
100 lira ($75)," Ulusoy said.
Underlining the extent of local people's confusion,
one unemployed, shabbily dressed 18-year-old man
wandering around the bazaar said: "I don't know much
about this bird flu. I heard it had come from
Nigeria."
Africa has not been affected by the bird flu virus,
which has mainly ravaged southeast Asia and China.
The disease has also been reported among poultry in
Romania and Croatia.
Reuters
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