.
10 Member Familial Cluster in Turkey Raises Pandemic Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary
January 6, 2006
As H5N1 bird and human outbreaks spread across Turkey, the initial clusters provide compelling evidence that H5N1 spread to humans has become more efficient. Although disease onset dates have not been released for most patients, media reports provide somewhat of a chronology of admission dates for the Ozkan family. The admission dates, names, and ages of family members are:
January 4
Hatice (15)
Aysegul (9)
Yusuf (3)
January 5
Rumeysa (1)
Mehmet (13)
Ahmet (11)
Mustafa (6)
January 6
Refica (33)
Hakan (15)
Rukiye (?)
The disease onset dates for the first three family members admitted would be most useful, because it is likely that there was a delay between disease onset and admission. The other seven family members probably developed symptoms closer to their admission date, because the first three family members had already been hospitalized and the news of the other cases from the same village was likely known.
The 10 family members, if confirmed to be H5N1 positive, would double the previous number of confirmed H5N1 patients from the same family, which was a family of five from Haiphong in March of 2005.
More details on the clinical picture, including disease onset dates, would be useful, but this large cluster, coupled with the clustered nature of the other patients admitted to the same hospital in Van, indicates H5N1 transmission to humans has become more efficient.
Map
Media Resources