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Bird Flu: Fourth child in hospital in
Turkey Kurdish region
9.2.2007 |
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Turkey, February 9, -- A fourth child with
flu-like symptoms has been taken to hospital for
observation after chickens died of bird flu in a
village in the Kurdish region of southeastern
Turkey, local officials said on Friday.
Turkey confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in the
impoverished province of Batman on Thursday, a year
after the H5N1 strain of the disease killed four
children in the region.
Agricultural authority workers in white protective
suits and masks disinfected areas at the site of the
outbreak in Bogazkoy, a hillside of simple
one-storey houses, around which a 10 km (6 miles)
quarantine zone has been established. |
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Four children are under observation in hospital,
local officials said, three -- aged two, three and
16 -- in Batman and a one-year-old boy in
neighbouring Diyarbakir.
The Agriculture Ministry said 170 chickens had died
of bird flu in the village, where virtually all
livestock have since been culled. It said it
believed wild birds spread the disease.
Teams of workers entered courtyards in Bogazkoy to
collect chickens in black plastic bags. The birds
were suffocated and dumped in piles by the road.
"The animals have been culled. There is no new case
(of sickness) and there is no problem now in the
village," said the village headman in Bogazkoy, Isa
Tumenci.
Paramilitary police manned checkpoints at the
entrance to the village and villagers were not
allowed to leave.
Veterinary experts were carrying out tests to
determine whether the virus was the deadly H5N1
strain. Turkey culled more than 1.3 million birds
during the 2006 outbreak.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed four
deaths in Turkey from H5N1 last year -- all of them
children from the town of Dogubayazit near the
Iranian border.
Eight other Turks tested positive for the H5N1
strain but recovered, according to WHO data. More
than 160 people worldwide have died of the virus
since 2003.
Scientists fear the H5N1 virus could mutate to a
form easily transmitted from human to human. As
people would lack immunity, it could then sweep the
world, killing millions, they say.
Victims usually contract bird flu through direct
exposure to diseased or dead poultry. Experts
believe migratory birds originally brought the virus
to Turkey and Europe from Asia and Russia, infecting
domestic poultry.
Reuters
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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