Third child dies in Turkey of bird flu

A third child from the same family has died of bird flu in a Turkish hospital, the third human fatality outside China and South-East Asia.

Hulya Kocyigit, 11, was the sister of Mehmet Ali, 14, who died last weekend, and of Fatma, 15, who died on Thursday.

The children lived in a remote rural district of eastern Turkey near the Armenian border.

A six-year-old brother is also being treated for the same disease in the hospital.

Huseyin Avni Sahin, the head doctor at Van hospital where the children died, told CNN Turk that 23 people were now being treated at his hospital for suspected bird flu.

"Fifteen of them are in bed, one in a critical condition. Eight are able to move about. Most of the patients are children," he said.

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus remains hard for people to catch but there are fears it could mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans.

Experts say a pandemic among humans could kill millions and cause massive economic losses.

The disease has killed 74 people in China and South-East Asia since 2003.

Like the east Asian victims, the Turkish children who died are known to have lived in close proximity with poultry.

- Reuters