Monday, January 23, 2006

Mideast on Edge As Bird Flu Hits Turkey

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

 

Bird flu has killed in Turkey on the northern fringe of the Middle East, and residents in the Arab lands to the south fear migrating birds have already spread the virus to their countries.

No cases have been confirmed despite scares in Lebanon and Iraq, but many Arabs have stopped eating chicken, health officials are stockpiling medicine, poultry flocks have been culled and citizens have been warned to be alert for dead birds and people with symptoms of the disease.

Fears the virus is already among them deepened when Turkey's agriculture minister on Friday accused unnamed countries among its neighbors of concealing outbreaks. Turkey has confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain in 21 people, including four children who died.

A team of U.S. government flu experts on Sunday visited a hospital in Van, the eastern Turkish city where the children died. The team was hoping to assess what help the United States could provide and planned trips to bordering Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

Other countries bordering Turkey are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bulgaria and Greece.

In Cairo, Imthithal Sayed, a 17-year-old student, said her mother "banned poultry from our house two months ago. She won't cook chicken or let us order it from takeout restaurants. I'm convinced it's dangerous. We don't want to get sick and die."

The H5N1 strain has killed at least 80 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Fears that the virus had moved south erupted in northern Iraq on Tuesday when a 15-year-old girl in a Kurdish area near the border with Turkey and Iran died after contracting a severe lung infection. Her hometown of Raniya is just north of a reservoir that is a stopover for migratory birds from Turkey.

WHO officials subsequently said tests showed bird flu did not kill the girl, but confusion surrounding the case points to the possible chaos that could accompany a genuine outbreak in the region. Iraqi officials said tissue samples from the dead girl were sent to Amman, Jordan, for testing. The Jordanians said they had never received the samples.

On Thursday, the WHO announced in Geneva that the tests were negative, but Iraqi authorities said that was not conclusive. Then on Saturday, a WHO official in Cairo said the tests had actually been done by Iraq's Agriculture Ministry and that they were in fact negative.

Iraqis in the north of the country remained concerned nevertheless.

"We have not eaten chicken in our house for two months. And now the news from Turkey has had a big psychological impact," said Ashti Ibrahim, a 43-year-old homemaker in Kirkuk.

Merwan Jalal, a 51-year-old Kirkuk engineer, said his wife still prepared chicken dinners but "it just doesn't taste the same because we're obsessed with the disease."

In Lebanon, a sick 6-year-old boy was moved to Beirut for observation but health officials released him from the hospital Saturday after tests showed he did not have bird flu.

While none of the countries in the Middle East have yet reported a confirmed case of the disease either in birds or humans, all say they have programs in place to combat the disease should it appear. Poultry imports throughout the region are virtually frozen. In Egypt, cat owners can't even find imported food for their pets. Stocks have been impounded at Mediterranean ports until the scare is over.

Some Syrians aren't buying eggs despite government assurances there is no bird flu in the country.

"Maybe its true, but I prefer not to take chance or endanger my children," said Sahar Ahmed, a 45-year-old Damascus homemaker.

The Syrian government has put notices in the state-run media warning about the disease and some flocks have been culled after birds died from unexplained causes.

Jordan said it imported 60,000 doses of Tamiflu, Kuwait said it had 5 million Tamiflu capsules on hand, and Egypt said a local pharmaceutical firm was gearing up to make a similar anti-viral medication.

But in a part of the world renowned for fatalism, 30-year-old Mariam Mohammed said there wasn't much point in worrying.

"It's in God's hands. Our house is full of chicken."

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