Romanian woman suspected having Bird Flu

BUCHAREST, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A Romanian woman suspected of having bird flu was admitted to hospital on Saturday but further tests were needed to confirm whether she had the deadly disease, officials said.

The Black Sea state has found the avian flu in poultry in 26 villages since October but has recorded no human cases so far.

"It's an old woman from Dudesti, one of the affected villages. She has had symptoms similar to bird flu for seven days," Adrian Streinu-Cercel, head of Romania's main virus laboratory told Realitatea TV station.

He said the woman would undergo tests at a laboratory in Bucharest to determine whether she was infected with the virus, but added she had not been lived in the village, in the southeastern county of Braila, for two months.

"We will have preliminary results in one hour after she gets in the laboratory and tomorrow we will know for sure (whether she has bird flu or not)," Streinu-Cercel said.

Earlier this month, Romania tightened safeguards against bird flu, boosting disinfection measures on major roads and introducing luggage checks at airports, train stations and sea ports.

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Fears that the disease that may spread to people have grown since the virus infected 21 people in nearby Turkey, killing four children.

Romania first detected the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in birds in the Danube delta, which lies on a major migratory route for wild birds.

The country of 22 million people does not share a border with Turkey but the Turkish coast is only 200 km (125 miles) away across the Black Sea.

Bird flu has killed at least 83 people, mostly in Asia, but scientists warn that if the virus mutates and spreads among humans it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions of people around the world.

http://www.mediafax.ro/english/articole-free/Total-Quarantin e-In-
Cernavoda--Due-To-Bird-Flu-Outbreak-464147-9.html