Travelers in Russia warned about bird flu in Turkey

Jan 8 2006

Following the confirmation by officials that two children and one adult have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in Turkey's capital Ankara, Russians are being warned against traveling to Turkey.

The results have yet to be been confirmed by the World Health Organization but may well be the first cases to be reported outside the eastern region of Van, 1,000km away, where another two people have also tested positive for the H5N1 virus, and three children from the same family died last week from it.

All three children, a 14 boy and his two sisters were living in close contact with sick poultry, but experts say as yet there is no evidence that the disease has begun to spread between humans.

Twenty people remain in hospital in the city of Van under treatment for suspected bird flu, while a team of WHO doctors is investigating the deaths and are looking for indications of transmission between humans.

To date the bird flu virus has killed over 70 people in South-East Asia.

Turkey is the sixth country where the deadly H5N1 virus has jumped from poultry to people, the first human infections outside eastern Asia.

The country is a popular tourist destination particularly for Russians and also for many Europeans, and Russians are able to get an entry visa for Turkey far easier than for Spain or Italy.

Russia has already dealt with an outbreak of the bird flu last year when hundreds of thousands of birds were culled but no human cases were reported.

Although the virus appears to be dying out there, authorities fear that migratory birds could bring it back to Russia in the spring of 2006.

Turkey has been accused of dragging it's heels in dealing with the outbreak but the WHO has attempted to downplay fears of the disease spreading.

However it has been reported that a cull of all birds was incomplete a week after the first fatality occurred.

Health officials complain they have experienced difficulty persuading people in poor rural regions to surrender all of their poultry up for slaughter.