Posted on 01/05/2006 12:11:12 AM PST by Dichroic
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A second Turkish child from the same family died from bird flu on Thursday at a hospital in eastern Turkey where she was being treated, a regional governor said.
Her brother, 14-year-old Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, had already died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, officials said on Wednesday, confirming the first human death from the disease outside China and southeast Asia.
"We lost Fatma Kocyigit this morning," Niyazi Tanilir, governor in the eastern province of Van, said on the CNN Turk news channel. Newspapers said Fatma was 15-years-old. She died around 6:30 a.m. (0430 GMT).
He said one patient was in a critical condition whereas another patient was in a less serious condition
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
I thought that yesterday they had definitively ruled that the brother had died NOT from bird flu, and were all hot & bothered because it was definitely something else, unknown?
Was watching Euro News and they are taking it very seriously now.
Anytime I read a bird flu story I think the same thing. In the same period, how many people in (country X) died from the regular flu? What is it about bird flu that it gets such top billing when someone dies from it?
"What is it about bird flu that it gets such top billing when someone dies from it?"
Because mouse pox just doesn't sound very scary.
Mortality rate of it, among other things.
Over 100 people have been infected by H5N1, with a mortality rate of over 50%. H5N1 has been the focus of much concern amid warnings that the H5N1 strain will likely evolve into a form that causes a global human pandemic with a very high mortality rate
Well that does it, If I had a flock of chickens in the yard it would be a chicken holocaust tonight. Turkey and Israel are on the main bird migration routes between Europe and Africa.
OFFICIALS called for calm after confirming this morning that two teenagers from the same family died from bird flu in eastern Turkey, becoming the first known human fatalities of the disease outside East Asia. .............
The two siblings had been taken to hospital on Saturday with fever, coughing and bleeding from the mouth after they came into contact with chickens that were slaughtered after showing signs of bird flu.
At least nine other people were under scrutiny for bird flu symptoms, Huseyin Avni Sahin, the chief physician of the Van State Hospital told the CNN-Turk news channel.
:snip:
Residents walk past dead poultry in the eastern Turkish town of Dogubeyazit, January 5, 2006.
Bird flu claimed its second human victim outside China and Southeast Asia on Thursday with the death of another Turkish teenager from the same family, officials and doctors said. REUTERS/STR
Third child has died
Not that I don't feel bad, of course I do. Since I posted my initial question I would like to know how many people have died from the regular Flu.
I understand that the mortality rate is high but many diseases have high mortality rates yet when people die from them they are not in the news.
This is the more virulant strain of avian influenza that has ever been discovered. As all flu viruses do, this strain is mutating like crazy, and it seems like it's getting closer to a potential pandemic judging by the sheer number of infections in Turkey.
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