ANKARA, 15 October 2005 — Turkey sought yesterday to reassure a nervous public after the discovery of a lethal bird flu strain, as the government banned the hunting of wild birds in a bid to prevent the virus spreading further. Amid plunging sales of poultry meat and people rushing to pharmacies in search of anti-viral drugs, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the media for blowing the situation out of proportion.
“We are saddened to see the written and visual media report the incident with much exaggeration,” Erdogan told reporters here after a meeting with the leadership of his party. He underlined that the outbreak in the northwestern village of Kiziksa was an isolated incident which had been contained and that nobody had yet been diagnosed with the highly dangerous H5N1 strain responsible. “My citizens should be at ease. There is no need for concern or fear,” the prime minister said. “I would like to underline that this is a routine disease that is encountered around the world and there is nothing extraordinary.”
The H5N1 strain does not spread easily between people but humans who come in contact with sick birds can contract the virulent disease, which has killed more than 60 of the 120 people infected in southeastern Asia since 2003. Scientists say millions of people around the world could die if the virulent strain of the bird flu crosses with human strains to become highly contagious among people.
Turkish medical staff yesterday tested nine people for possible bird flu a day after European health officials confirmed what many had long feared — the arrival of the deadly H5N1 strain on Europe’s doorstep. European Union experts held crisis talks on the spread of the bird flu to examine the risk migratory birds might pose for the region.
The meeting was expected to approve measures to combat the spread of the disease by requiring EU member states to reduce contact between poultry and wild birds in high risk areas, the EU Commission said. This could include keeping poultry indoors.
Turkish health officials kept nine people from the western town of Turgutlu under observation and tested them after 40 of their pigeons died, state-run Anatolian news agency said. “There is no sign of illness in the nine people, but we have taken all the people who have been in contact with the birds under observation,” the agency quoted local health official Osman Ozturk as saying.
Turkish officials have slaughtered nearly 9,000 turkeys, chicken, ducks, geese and pigeons in a three-kilometer quarantine zone around Kiziksa since the outbreak last week and tightened controls across the country. In a fresh measure to combat the virus, which authorities believe was introduced by migratory birds attracted to a nature reserve near Kiziksa, the environment ministry announced a nationwide ban on bird hunting.
Experts have warned that Turkey should prepare for a long battle with bird flu as the country is crossed by three major routes which around half a million migratory birds take each year to fly from Northern Europe to Africa and the Middle East. Since news of the outbreak emerged, authorities have been swamped by calls from people reporting what they believe were suspicious bird deaths.
In the western town of Turgutlu, authorities disinfected two houses after they received a call that 40 pigeons being kept on the roof of one had died, the Anatolia news agency said. A hospital took blood samples from nine people who had come into contact with the pigeons and briefly kept them under observation, local officials told the agency, but played down the possibility of a new outbreak.
Turkey says it has the necessary supplies of drugs for the prevention and treatment of the disease, but panic has already gripped Turks with pharmacies reporting a rush for the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.
Tamiflu, which is produced by the Swiss company Roche, is considered to be the most effective medicine against bird flu. “I get 15 to 20 people coming into my shop and another 15 or 20 calling on the phone for Tamiflu when we cannot get any from our suppliers,” Hasan Erdem told AFP at his pharmacy in downtown Ankara. “I would describe the situation as pure panic.”
Also hit are sales of poultry meat which producers say have dropped by 50 percent in the past few days, despite assurances by health officials that the virus dies if meat from a sick animal is cooked well. In a bid to calm nerves, Erdogan broke Thursday’s dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast with a forkful of chicken salad which he also offered to a photographer. “Do you know what this is?” Erdogan was quoted as asking reporters as he tucked in. “I hope you will change your headlines from now on.”
