UN warning over Turkey bird flu
BBC
| January 11 2006
Bird flu could
become endemic in Turkey and pose a serious risk to neighbouring countries,
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned.
Health officer Juan Lubroth said it may
be spreading despite controls. More than 300,000 birds have been culled.
It came as the World Health Organization said good
public information and not panicking were the key to tackling the Turkey
outbreak.
Two people have died from the H5N1 strain in Turkey
- 13 are in hospital.
"The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1
could become endemic in Turkey," the FAO said.
"Far more human and animal exposure to the virus
will occur if strict containment does not isolate all known and unknown
locations where the virus is currently present," Mr Lubroth added.
The FAO has sent a team to Turkey to help efforts to
control the virus.
It has warned neighbouring countries such as Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Iran and Syria to be on high alert, advising
them to apply surveillance and control measures and ensure the public is
fully informed about the virus.
In other developments:
Russia orders security measures to be stepped up at
its airports and borders and its scientists warn Russians not to go to Turkey
on holiday
Germany's Agricultural Minister Horst Seehofer says
he is likely to order all birds be kept indoors.
The FAO comments came as the WHO made reassuring statements
on Turkey's response to the outbreak.
Dr Marc Danzon said the country's health officials
had met the disease with a satisfactory response.
The WHO is trying to work out why it has spread so
quickly in Turkey. The deaths were the first outside South-East Asia, where
more than 70 have died since last 2003.
On Tuesday, two more people were confirmed to have
died of bird flu in China. They reportedly died in December - one in Guangxi
province and the other in Jiangxi province.
'Don't panic'
At a news conference in Ankara, Dr Danzon said the
Turkish outbreak had been taken seriously from the outset and said the WHO
was working with the Turkish health ministry.
He stressed that containing the virus depended
on disseminating public health information and making people abide by it.
"The people, mainly in infected areas, need to
perfectly understand that the danger is contact between sick or dead poultry
and a human being, mainly a child," he said.
"The worst situation is a panic situation. There
is no reason to panic. With panic, there will be bad outcomes."
And he added there was "no danger" for people
visiting Turkey, despite the issue of WHO travel advice.
Quick spread
The WHO is examining how bird flu has moved so quickly
across the country since two people died in the eastern province of Van
last week and why there have been so many cases.
It says there is still no evidence of human-to-human
transmission of bird flu. Experts fear that development could cause a global
pandemic.
Victims appeared to have contracted the virus from
close contact with infected poultry. But the WHO admits it may be too soon
to confirm any changes in the virus and its spread.
The WHO thinks the world is now closer to another flu
pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the 20th Century's
three pandemics occurred.
The WHO's top official in Asia, Shigeru Omi, has stressed
that East Asia remains the region at greatest risk.
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