Three more people with bird flu-like symptoms hospitalized in Turkey
12/2/2007 16:32
Turkish Health Minister Recep Akday said in Ankara yesterday that three
more people from the southeastern province of Batman were hospitalized with
flu-like symptoms.
The three people were hospitalized at the Dicle University
Hospital in Diyarbakir, a major southeastern city, and were being closely
watched, Akday said at a press conference in Ankara.
The authorities were
suspicious that the high fevers and bird flu-like symptoms of the three, who
might have contacted birds, were caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu
virus.
On the same day, the Health Ministry said in a statement that blood
samples from four children, aged between 17 months and 16 years old, were tested
negative from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.
They all came from
bird flu-stricken Bogazkoy village in Batman, where the virus caused the deaths
of 170 domestic fowl earlier this month. But no human cases have yet been
reported since the outbreak.
Local media reported that authorities have
imposed a 10-km quarantine zone around Bogazkoy and nearby villages and culled
more than 1,300 chicken, turkeys and ducks in the area.
Bird flu was firstly
found in Turkey in October, 2005 when a total of 1,800 turkeys died in a farm in
Kiziksa village of Manyas.
Last year, four children from the east of the
country died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu after having contact with
chickens carrying the virus.
Xinhua
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