Turkey Reports Five New Bird Flu Cases

Fears of human bird flu in Turkey grew today as five more cases were reported across the country and 21 patients in an Istanbul hospital waited for test results.

A Turkish health ministry official told the Anatolian news agency that laboratories had identified the virus in the Black Sea provinces of Kastamonu, Corum and Samsun and in the eastern province of Van.

If any of the 21 people under observation in Istanbul are found to be infected with the disease, they would be the first human cases of bird flu in Europe.

The Turkish cases - which took a step closer to Europe with the confirmation of three cases in Ankara yesterday - are the first to cross the species barrier outside south-east Asia.

The H5N1 strain has so far killed 74 people, the majority in Vietnam. The disease passes from infected poultry to humans and has a high mortality rate.

Mehmet Bakar, the deputy health director of Istanbul province, today told Turkish newspapers that initial tests on two dead chickens in the district of Kucukcekmece had indicated they were infected with bird flu.

Turkish health officials are monitoring the virus for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans, sparking a pandemic.

Turkey has now reported 14 human cases of bird flu. Health officials say the five most recent cases are the deadly H5N1 strain, but the World Health Organisation has only confirmed four cases in the country using its laboratory tests.

Those include two children from the same family who died from the strain in the Van province village of Dogubayazit after playing with chicken heads.

Tests are being carried out on their 11-year-old sister to see whether she also died from the strain.

The chairman of the Medical Research Council today said he believed there was a high chance bird flu would at some point spread west to Britain. Professor Colin Blakemore said there was a need for "concern, preparation and vigilance" but no reason to panic.

"The problem would be if it began being passed from person to person if the virus changed in some way which made it more infectious for people," told BBC Breakfast.

"At the moment, bird flu is being passed to humans through direct contact, by touching the birds, holding them, or by dust entering the eyes and nose."

The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has appealed to Turks to help in a mass poultry cull to stop the advance of the virus.

However, local people in Dogubayazit, where the three children died, have accused the authorities of being slow to act.

Despite the promise of compensation, many farmers in the impoverished regions of eastern Turkey have proved unwilling to sacrifice their only source of income.