Turkey tests nine for bird flu, EU experts meet
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Turkish medical staff on Friday tested nine people for possible bird flu a day after European health officials confirmed what many had long feared—the arrival of the deadly H5N1 strain on Europe’s doorstep.
European Union experts held crisis talks on the spread of the bird flu to examine the risk that migratory birds might pose for the 25-nation bloc.
The spread of the disease from Asia was a “troubling sign”, U.S. Health Secretary Mike Leavitt said, and the world must work harder to prepare for a potential flu pandemic among humans.
The European Commission said on Thursday the bird flu outbreak in Turkey was indeed H5N1 and advised Europe to prepare for a pandemic.
Turkish health officials kept nine people from the western town of Turgutlu under observation and carried out tests after the death of 40 of their pigeons, state-run Anatolian news agency said.
“Acting on a tip-off, we took the family which owned the pigeons and the neighbours who made the tip-off, in all nine people, to the hospital,” the agency quoted local health official Osman Ozturk as saying.
“There is no sign of illness in the nine people, but we have taken all the people who have been in contact with the birds under observation,” he said.
No human cases of the disease have been reported in Europe and the major threat of a human pandemic is still in Asia, experts believe. Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.
Turkey has bird flu in its poultry but Romania must now wait another 24 hours because of a customs delay to find out if it also has the virulent H5N1 strain.
The European Commission said the meeting of experts in Brussels would run from 0830 GMT to 1830 GMT.
The World Health Organisation in Geneva sought to calm fears, saying evidence showed H5N1 did not spread easily from birds to humans.
But a senior WHO official in the Philippines said the international community needed to raise about $260 million to fight bird flu in Southeast Asia.
“All attempts to bring it under control in Southeast Asia have failed,” said Shigeru Omi, the WHO’s director in the Western Pacific region.
Leavitt, who is visiting bird flu-hit countries in Southeast Asia, said in Hanoi: “H5N1 is mostly an animal disease today. To stop it from spreading to humans, we have to stop it in birds.”
To calm the public, the Turkish and French prime ministers made a point of eating chicken.
But the threat has caused consternation in Europe even though people do not live in close contact with poultry at their homes, as in Asia, where dozens have died from the virus.
One Asian victim consumed raw duck’s blood, a delicacy not popular with Europeans.
MASKS AND VACCINES
But European poultry producers, whose industry is worth billions of dollars, took immediate steps to protect their flocks and their staff, while members of the public scrambled to buy facemasks and flu vaccines. In Hungary, poultry sales fell.
“We keep saying that these chickens didn’t catch the flu ... but if people turn up, they just complain and don’t buy,” said Budapest butcher Iren Kirilla.
There were signs of alarm in Serbia, where people were reported to have bought 20,000 facemasks in two days, while Belgrade pharmacies sold out of the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
In Germany, media reported that surgeries were being inundated with people seeking vaccination against normal strains of flu, and a surge in demand for anti-viral drugs. Poland also reported rising demand for flu shots.
Romania is on edge after having sent bird flu samples to Britain for testing to determine whether the virus found in three ducks in the Danube Delta last week was H5N1.
The samples were supposed to arrive on Thursday but got delayed by customs as they were dangerous material.
H5N1 is considered the biggest direct disease threat to humanity. Experts estimate that if it acquires the ability to spread easily from person to person, it will make more than 25 million people seriously ill and kill as many as 7 million.
European countries tightened border controls on poultry and poultry products but fear the real threat may come from the skies as returning migratory birds bring the virus home.
Avian flu is transmitted to humans only if they eat or live in close contact with infected birds. But scientists say H5N1 is mutating towards a form that could pass between humans.
Migratory birds are a natural reservoir of avian influenza viruses and do not usually become sick when infected. Domestic poultry die quickly when infected.
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