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Suspected H5N1 Turkish Child Dies
Recombinomics Commentary
January 1, 2006
One of five Turkish children being tested for bird flu has died and another is in a critical condition, the chief doctor at the hospital where they were being treated said.
Five children and a 35-year-old woman suffering from fever and pneumonia-like symptoms have been tested for the bird flu virus over the past two days.
The 14-year-old boy who died had been on life support after his brain function stopped, Huseyin Avni Sahin, chief doctor at 100 Yil Hospital in the country's south eastern Van province, said.
"There are six cases. It's viral pneumonia, and four of them could be related to a disease with poultry," Buzgan said, adding that his ministry was carrying out quick tests and sending a health team to the region.
The above description of six patients hospitalized with bird flu symptoms continues to point toward bird flu, especially in the four siblings. One has died and another is in critical condition after eating a sick bird. The patients also had bleeding from the mouth, another symptom of H5N1 infection.
If confirmed, the patients would be the first confirmed H5N1 cases outside of Asia, as well as the first fatality outside of Asia. The only prior reported bird flu fatality outside of Asia was a veterinarian infected with H7N7 during an outbreak in 2003 in The Netherlands.
A fatal H5N1 human infection linked to migratory birds in Turkey would signal more progression, as H5N1 extends its global reach and infects more humans with more versions of H5N1.
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