The death toll from bird flu in Turkey has hit four after a local laboratory detected the virus in a teenager who died over the weekend
Doctors in Turkey are warning the public that people are seeking medical help too late, and that is proving fatal.
Samples from 16 year old Fatma Ozcan, who died in the eastern city of Van, tested positive for the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the health ministry said. Initial tests had returned a negative results.
Doctors are now battling to save her five-year-old brother, Muhammed, describing the child as the most worrisome case among the 16 confirmed H5N1 carriers in the country.
The chief physician of the Van hospital, Huseyin Avni Sahin, told AFP that the boy did not yet need the support of a respiratory machine.
He was later quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying Muhammed was showing some signs of improvement.
Days before Fatma Ozcan perished, she was shown on television, sitting visibly sick on a hospital bench in the remote town of Dogubeyazit, as her father argued with a doctor against sending the two children to a larger hospital.
The man agreed to send the children to Van only after he was persuaded that he would not be charged for their treatment.
Ten others infected with bird flu, remain under treatment in hospitals across Turkey, while five have been discharged.
Three other siblings, aged between 11 and 15, died earlier this month in the same hospital, the first bird flu fatalities outside Southeastern Asia and China.
All H5N1 carriers in Turkey have been in close contact with sick birds, officials say, ruling out the possibility of human-to-human transmission, which scientists fear may spark a global pandemic.
Waiting too long
Doctors said the Ozcan siblings, like the first three children who died, were brought to the hospital long after contagion, significantly reducing their chances of survival.
"The first three cases came 10 days after (they began showing the
symptoms), while the fourth, five days after," Sahin said.
"Naturally, this leads us to suggest that belated treatment is a primary factor in fatality cases."
Eastern Turkey is one of the country's most impoverished regions, where people breed fowl in their backyards, often as their only livelihood.
About 900,000 birds have been slaughtered across the country since late December when the virus was detected in poultry in a remote region near the border with Iran.
The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said the disease could still be kept in check if Turkey received enough help.
"We still have time to prevent the pathology from becoming an epidemic if Turkish veterinary services receive the necessary aid from international organizations," FAO official Juan Lubroth said in Rome.
The disease, believed to be spread by migratory birds, has been steadily spreading westwards, reaching Turkey’s capital Ankara and its biggest city, Istanbul.
Indonesian death
Indonesia has confirmed that a 13-year-old girl had died at the weekend of the H5N1 virus, while two of her siblings were ill.
The World Health Organisation has yet to confirm the virus was to blame for the child’s death.
The country had previously reported 12 deaths from bird flu.
Meanwhile, a man from east Jerusalem who was rushed to hospital and tested for possible bird flu does not have the disease, an Israeli health ministry spokesman said.
“The first tests at the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem showed that the patient does not have bird flu. The health ministry is proceeding with other tests to determine the nature of his illness," the spokesman told AFP.
The 50-year-old man from Sur Baher village in east Jerusalem had been admitted for tests after a number of chickens he was keeping died.
"Last night, a man came into the emergency room suffering from flu symptoms," Hadassah spokesman Ron Krumer said.
Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky ordered the man's chicken coop to be immediately quarantined and the remaining live fowl to be examined by the municipality's veterinary service, public radio reported.
Until now, no bird found to be carrying the virus has been discovered in Israel, the ministry said.
Egypt increases protection
But the just the threat of bird flu was enough for Egypt to introduce reinforced measures aimed at protecting the country against the virus.
Health Minister Hatim al-Gebali and Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza unveiled the measures during a debate in the Shoura Council (upper house of parliament).
Authorities are now tightening their checks at the airport and other points of entry and stepping up tests on domestic and migratory birds along the country's northern Mediterranean coast.
Hospitals were also being equipped in case of an outbreak, the minister told parliament.
The migration of wild birds usually takes place in autumn when they fly from eastern and southern Europe over Egypt to seek warmer temperatures further south.
Egypt has called off the bird-hunting season this year and next, because of bird flu fears.
Authorities have also set up observation posts along the borders and territorial waters to collect samples.
Imports of live birds and poultry products have also been banned.
The ministers stressed, however, that there had been no cases of bird flu in the country.
Syria, which shares a border with Turkey, has also taken additional steps.
Authorities there have ordered the closure of poultry markets or their transfer outside of towns, banned hunting and all imports of fowls and derivative products.
Beijing meeting
Representatives of 90 countries and 25 organisations were set to meet in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday to raise the nearly US$2 billion needed to prevent a potential a potential pandemic.
The senior UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, David Nabarro, said he would like to see more.
"To be asking the world to invest $US1.5 billion, which is the total I would like to see, to be asking for that sort of money, is really a very small amount in comparison with the total cost to the world of a pandemic," he said.
"We can't at this stage say that the situation globally is under control. However, I have seen a great increase in the intensity with which countries are tackling avian influenza," he added.
The two-day meeting, sponsored by the World Bank, the European Union and the Chinese government, will also hammer out a strategy against bird flu.
"Certainly, in the event of a human influenza pandemic, more will be required," Dr Nabarro said.
But Dr Nabarro, only appointed to his post last year, said that he thought it was unlikely the full amount he wants will be pledged because of competing demands, such as natural disaster relief.
"It's just that when we are in a world where there are so many different demands for resources, it's quite hard to push the system to deliver the kind of level you want," he said.
The World Bank approved more than US$600 million in a line of credit last week, and the European Union has pledged US$132 million in aid.
Dr Nabarro said he could not say where bird flu would crop up next, though he thought migrating birds could bring it to Africa.