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Submitted by ctv_en_1 on Thu, 01/05/2006 - 07:38
At least two people in eastern Turkey have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The country's health minister said a 14-year-old boy, named as Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, died on Sunday in the city of Van in eastern Turkey. He was found to have the disease, despite earlier results indicating otherwise.


The boy's sister, who is seriously ill in hospital, also tested positive. A third sibling has symptoms of bird flu.


Kocyigit and his brothers and sisters lived and worked on a poultry farm in the town of Dogubayezit, close to the border with Iran.


Health Minister Recep Akdag said the family ate infected birds, which they kept in their home.


The H5N1 strain has killed at least 70 people in Asia in the past two years. It has been discovered in bird flocks in Turkey, Russia, Romania and Croatia, but had not previously spread to humans.


So far the disease appears only to have infected people who live or work closely with birds, but health experts fear it could mutate and spread among human populations as easily as the common influenza.

 

BBC

 

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