Turkish health minister urges calm over bird flu outbreak
The bird flu outbreak in western Turkey has been contained, the health minister said today, urging the public to remain calm amid panic over news that Turkish birds were infected with the virulent H5N1 virus.
“Bird flu is totally under control,” Health Minister Recep Akdag said. “The outbreak in winged animals occurred in one area and has been contained.”
“Of course, we need to be careful; we need to do our homework well,” he said, reassuring Turks that the government was ready to deal with bird flu.
The European Union announced earlier that it found the H5N1 bird flu virus in Turkish poultry – the first confirmation of H5N1 in Europe. The virus has killed 60 people in Asia since 2003.
Experts have been tracking the disease in birds because they worry the strain might mutate into a human virus and spark a pandemic. Public health authorities want the poultry outbreaks wiped out as rapidly as possible to prevent those opportunities for mutations.
The village outside Balikesir in western Turkey where 1,800 turkeys died has been under a two mile quarantine for the past week.
Authorities culled 7,600 domestic birds and disinfected five hectares of land in the area to contain the highly contagious virus, officials said.
Turkey asked the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG for one million boxes of a standard flu medicine as a precaution against a possible pandemic, a health official said.
The Anatolia news agency reported that Turkey wanted to stockpile 500,000 boxes of the anti-viral oseltamivir, known commercially as Tamiflu, and had requested that 300,000 be sent as soon as possible.
“A letter of intent … has been sent so that a fixed amount of the anti-viral drug is kept in Turkey,” Anatolia quoted ministry official Turan Buzgan as saying.
But a Health Ministry official said later that the government asked Roche for one million boxes. Each box contains 10 capsules.
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