Health Ministry: H5N1 strain of avian flu confirmed in dead birds in Azerbaijan
(AP)
10 February 2006
BAKU, Azerbaijan - The Health Ministry said on Friday that a London laboratory has confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of avian flu in dead birds from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea coast.
State television urged viewers not to prepare poultry dishes and broadcast descriptions of bird flu symptoms, while the Health and Agriculture Ministries appealed to people to avoid contact with foul and to isolate domestic poultry from wild birds.
Part of Azerbaijan shares a short border with eastern Turkey, where four children died after becoming infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The first case of mass deaths among birds was registered in the autumn in the Nakhichivan region, bordering on Turkey. More deaths occurred in December and January, but health authorities insisted that the birds had been infected with avian flu and said there was no cause for concern.
According to local media, within a two-four day span at the beginning of this month, the carcasses of thousands of dead migratory birds were found floating along the sea coast near the Khachmas and Devechi districts.
Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form spread easily among humans, triggering a pandemic capable of killing millions. The virus has a limited ability to jump from poultry to people and has killed at least 88 people in east Asia and Turkey since 2003. There is no evidence yet to suggest it can spread from human to human.
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