Experts Await Bird Flu Test Results (AP)

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey - A 12-year-old girl who was hastily buried by torchlight was infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, officials said Monday, the fourth Turkish child to die of the disease and the country's 20th human case.

Experts were awaiting the results of tests on three children hospitalized with symptoms in the western city of Istanbul. If it is established that the virus has gained a foothold there, it would bring the illness to the doorstep of Europe.

The latest fatality, Fatma Ozcan, died Sunday in the eastern city of Van but initially had tested negative for H5N1. The Health Ministry ordered new tests after her 5-year-old brother, Muhammet, tested positive, and officials said those confirmed she was infected.

Authorities rushed to bury Fatma on Sunday evening, wrapping her in a special body bag to contain any virus after a quick prayer beneath lighted torches at a snowy cemetery. She was from Dogubayazit — the same town where three siblings died of bird flu about 10 days ago — and was bleeding from her mouth and throat when she was brought to the hospital.

Her brother was being treated for fever and a lung infection, officials said.

As of Monday, 11 patients were hospitalized, all but one in stable condition, the ministry said.

In Geneva, Maria Cheng, a World Health Organization spokeswoman, said the agency accepted the 20 human cases reported by Turkey but was waiting for the results of further tests by a British lab — expected this week — before changing its official toll, which stands at four cases, including two deaths.

Among Turkey's neighbors, Greece's health minister urged Greeks to avoid traveling to Turkey, and Syria said it had begun disinfecting people and vehicles at border crossings. A lawmaker in Russia, meanwhile, said his government would fly home more than 8,000 hajj pilgrims who had traveled to Mecca via Turkey to avoid further risk.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned that bird flu might have already arrived in neighboring countries including Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Syria and cited other countries, including Moldova, Bulgaria and Iraq as countries at risk.

"You have to face the fact that the virus is in their neighborhood," said Samuel Jutzi, who heads the agency's animal health division.

Turkey's agriculture minister, Mehdi Eker, also said the disease had spread, and suggested some countries were concealing it.

"We know for fact that this disease exists in other places, but there are some (countries) that are hiding it," he told private NTV television.

As Turks complaining of symptoms checked into hospitals, there were concerns that the virus might still be spreading despite the precautionary slaughter of 931,000 chickens, geese and turkeys. Health officials said all 20 people with confirmed H5N1 infection appeared to have touched or played with birds.

At least 77 people in Asia have died since the virus surfaced there in 2003, the World Health Organization says. The WHO has been tracking the outbreak closely to determine whether the virus is changing.

Experts are concerned that the virus could mutate into a form that would spread easily among humans, triggering a pandemic capable of killing millions. The WHO has stressed that it has no evidence of person-to-person infection occurring in Turkey.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip's Cabinet met to discuss further measures to combat the outbreak, and authorities on Monday banned the transport of all birds and hoofed animals, except race horses, as a precaution.

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Associated Press reporter Suzan Fraser contributed to this story.