Second Turkish child dies from bird flu

Second Turkish child dies from bird flu 15 minutes ago



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.

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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.

A top World Health Organization (WHO) official said the boy had probably died from H5N1, which would mark a dramatic shift westwards for the deadly disease to the threshold of Europe.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060105/ts_nm/birdflu_turkey_dc

However, this bears close watching. I wonder if these children lived in close proximity with fowl?

snip/

The children helped to raise poultry on a small farm in the town of Dogubeyazit, near Mount Ararat — believed to be the resting place of Noah's Ark — and were in close contact with sick birds.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_he_me/turkey_bird_flu_5

and I hope they died quickly and obliviously as this flu kills in a way that is unimaginably horrific.

down w/this (they're not sure @ 2 of them yet).

"Kocyigit was among two brothers and two sisters between ages 6 and 15 who were admitted to hospital last week after developing high fevers, coughing and bleeding in their throats."

So sorry for them & their family, & you're right - hope they didn't have to suffer long. Hopefully they were/are out of it enough to not have to feel the full brunt of the effects.