18 in Turkey with bird flu

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the number of people who have now fallen victim to the deadly bird flu virus in Turkey has risen to 18 from 15, and most of them are children.

Guenael Rodier, head of the WHO mission to Turkey, has reportedly said that laboratory tests in Ankara have shown that a third dead child from the same family also had the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Although the initial tests proved negative to the virus later tests have confirmed it's presence. The girl's teenage brother and sister who also died last week had been confirmed as bird flu victims.

Rodier says the two new cases are also children who lived in close proximity to poultry but are from two separate areas.

The H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds and poultry across large parts of Turkey, particularly in poor villages stretching from Istanbul at the gates of Europe to Van near the Iranian and Iraqi borders.

Rodier says Turkey has the challenge of preventing new outbreaks and needs to be prepared for more cases. Rodier says from a local standpoint the situation 'is not too worrying' and they do not expect an explosion in numbers.

The more entrenched the virus becomes in poultry flocks, the greater the risk that more humans will become infected. To date the virus is reported to have infected around 150 people, killing at least 78 in six countries, mainly in Asia.

According to Rodier it is too early to say whether the two children confirmed with bird flu on Thursday are out of danger, but the rest of the patients are not apparently in a critical condition.

Despite the large and rapid rise in the number of cases which has concerned experts, there is still fortunately no evidence of human-to-human transmission in Turkey.

Meanwhile health experts are closely studying the outbreak for clues on how to combat the virus.

On a more optimistic note it seems the mortality rate in Turkey is lower than in east Asia where around one in every two victims has died.

Rodier says that may be because the Turks have a more rapid access to hospitals and anti-virals.

The disease remains essentially a bird disease, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could spread easily between people, sparking a pandemic.

Rodier says they have sound confirmation from results back from London showing transmission is entirely avian, and there is no evidence of any change in the transmission pattern of the virus.