January 24, 2006

Bird flu retreating from Turkey but fears persist

People in Turkey are breathing a sigh of relief as no new cases have been reported for a week and those infected are well on their way to recovery.  The country is optimistic that the disease will soon fade away, Faruk Demirel, spokesman for the agriculture ministry, told AFP. 

The last confirmed case of bird flu in Turkey was on Jan 17.

Government officials said the improvement was due to increased awareness of the disease, its risks and channels of contamination.

However, Turkey is clearly not out of the woods yet. Scientists have taken a sample from a patient in Turkey which indicated that it has mutated into a form that may easily infect humans, according to the journal Nature.

Research indicated that the virus is trying to see if it can more easily infect humans. However, there has been no signs that it has been successful so far, said World Health Organization's spokeswoman Maria Cheng.

Currently, there is no cause for concern unless there are more of such samples from Turkey, Cheng added.