The third Turkish baby died from bird flu

The disaster struck a Turkish mother when her three young children died from bird flu in less than a week. The 6-year-old is now hospitalized. The reason is that the children took the chicken head to death because of the flu to make toys.

The neighbors of the Kocyigit family attend a funeral for three children who died of bird flu

The horror of bird flu is covering the small town at the foot of a snow-covered mountain in western Turkey, near the Iranian border. The Kocyigit family in turn witnessed the deaths of three children. First, Mehmet Ali, 14, died on Sunday. Then came 15-year-old Fatma sister on Thursday and now 11-year-old Hulya was buried right next to the siblings a day later. They all have symptoms of high fever, cough and throat bleeding. Six-year-old Hasan was still treated in the hospital, but the boy showed signs of recovery and was no longer breathing.

Meanwhile, panicked villagers rushed to take their children to the hospital when they saw any signs. According to the initial investigation, the cause of death is because the children who play the heads of chickens die from the flu, throw them like a ball around the house.

Test results in the UK confirmed that the Kocyigit family was infected with bird flu, but it is not known if the pathogen is H5N1 . If so, these will be the first deaths outside the Southeast Asian epidemic.

Another Turkish boy named Yusuf Tunc is also confirmed to have the virus, but experts do not know if he has any connection with the Kocyigit children. Currently Turkey has about 24 other people with flu-like symptoms.

The Turkish Ministry of Health has said that more than 5,000 boxes of Tamiflu have been transferred to the epidemic area and five ventilators are on their way to the bird flu hospital in Van. Since late last year, about 14,000 poultry in western and southwestern Turkey have been destroyed.

My Linh (according to AFP)