Bird Flu

[Joseph]

Great. Armenians being blamed for the bird flu.

AKP ON BIRD FLU: WOULD IT BE A BIOLOGICAL WEAPON?
By Fatih Atik, Ankara

Zaman, Turkey
Jan 18 2006

Discussions questioning whether "bird flu could be a biological weapon"
marked the Justice and Development Party (AKP) group meeting held
yesterday behind closed doors.

Ankara Deputy Ersonmez Yarbay in a speech delivered at the session,
at which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not attend, put
forward the notion that bird flu could be a biological weapon.

"This could be some kind of smart virus that starts from our border
regions and is seen in the Turkish cities of Agri and Igdir, but does
not pass to Armenia and Iran. It appears to be heading towards the
West. Perhaps this is some type of biological weapon; the issue's
military dimensions must be seriously analyzed," Yarbay said.

Bird flu is a disaster scenario invented in developed countries he
said. "Western countries see this disease as a weapon developed at
the hands of terrorists."

Yarbay opposed the culling of all fowls and criticized the attitudes
of the Health and Agriculture ministries .Yarbay reminded of the
words of the education minister during the Ottoman period "How well I
could manage education if these schools did not exist," and warned,
"Let us not create an understanding that suggests 'how well could I
rule this country and this ministry if chickens did not exist.'"

Yarbay suggested healthy animals be quarantined for their own
protection, and asked "Would mankind continue in a world where no
winged animals exist?"

10 million fowls to be destroyed

Minister of Health Recep Akdag said he found the claims of biological
weapons to be "unreasonable".

Villagers must destroy their fowls, of which there are around 10
million in total, for the health of the Turkish people, the minister
told, it is a necessity for the health of the nation and to control
and over the come the spread of the bird flu virus.

No great losses have been recorded, Akdag assured, thanks to the
measures taken in 2004 and the ministry task forces has sufficient
medicine and vaccine stocks in hand. Both Turkey and the World must
always be on alert against bird flu, Akdag warned, in response to
the criticisms of deputies' suggesting that "culling works could
have been done more humanely" and said the teams are working more
professionally now.

Erdogan: White meat products from integrated plants can be consumed

Erdogan speaking during the open session of the meeting said the white
meat and eggs produced in integrated plants can be eaten without
fear. Erdogan said the disease was seen in fowls bred in the open
air not in integrated plants and emphasized that such speculation
damages the sector.

"We must know that depriving our citizens from this source of protein
and damaging the sector and the thousands of people that earn a
living from it by spreading unnecessary fear and speculation is not
good for Turkey," Erdogan said.

The prime ministry acted in a transparent way regarding its handling
of bird flu from the outset and was in immediate and regular contact
with the World Health Organization and EU countries. Erdogan also
said so far, one million birds have been destroyed and their owners
have received full compensation.

[Kharpert]

Why would anyone use the Bird Flu as a biological weapon when other, more easily isolated and deadly diseases can be spread just as quickly, i.e. foot-in-mouth disease? This is just a load of sensational bullxxxx meant to prey on everyone's current fears.

[Joseph]

Seriously. As far as I know the bird flu is an airborne virus and there's pretty much nothing to stop it. Bird don't recognize borders.

[TurQ]

I think it is not fair to say that Turks assert that.
One member of the parliment said that, the others opposed it including health minister.

But his concern is true why it is seen only in our borders. But I think it more related with the health system in our neighbouring countries. Probably there are bird flue incidents in Iran and Armenia and probably they are not aware of it.

Seriously. As far as I know the bird flu is an airborne virus and there's pretty much nothing to stop it. Bird don't recognize borders.

[Joseph]

I definitely don't think he spoke for the entire government or his political party but what worries me is that some people will get riled up by his statement and whoever is inclined to agree with him will. Not much anybody can do.

[TurQ]

Although in last several years people are inclined to believe in conspiracy theories, I dont think they will believe in that, may be a few but not much.

But few months ago, some Armenians in this forum said "Turks will name this disease aftern an Armenian". For Turks Armenia and Armenians do not mean much, when they hear news about Diaspora effort to hurt Turkey or news about Azerbeyjan they got a little bit angry but overall Turkish people are not interested about Armenia, simply dont care. I think for Armenians it's the opposite. I check Armenian news regularly, almost everyday there is news about Turks, or Turkey.
The problem with this news story about the bird flu is that it will have more impact in Armenian society than Turkish. Armenians are inclined to hear negative news about Turkey, they will probably produce their own conspiracy theories out of this news..

I definitely don't think he spoke for the entire government or his political party but what worries me is that some people will get riled up by his statement and whoever is inclined to agree with him will. Not much anybody can do.

[Gavur]

1918 pandemic flu virus that killed 50 million people!

Second mutation in Turkey H5N1 virus suggests adaptation to humans
Jan 19, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – A new report in Nature cites more evidence that mutations detected in H5N1 avian influenza viruses recovered from patients in Turkey may better equip the viruses to infect humans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced a week ago that a mutation in one virus sample could improve the virus's ability to spread from birds to humans. The mutation is believed to make the virus more likely to bind to human cell receptors and less likely to bind to avian cell receptors, the WHO said.

A news article published today by Nature says scientists have detected another mutation in the Turkish samples that may improve the microbe's ability to jump not only from birds to humans but also from human to human. However, a scientist quoted in the piece said the two mutations, on their own, are not likely to lead to efficient person-to-person transmission.

Virus samples from the first two Turkish children to die of avian flu have been analyzed at the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in London. Last week the WHO announced that a sample from one of the patients had an amino acid change in hemagglutinin, the surface protein that enables flu viruses to bind to and enter host cells.

The same mutation was seen in two patients in Hong Kong in 2003 and in Vietnam last year, the WHO said. Previous research indicated that the Hong Kong 2003 viruses prefer human cell receptors over bird cell receptors, the agency said. But the WHO stopped short of suggesting that this would help explain the relatively high incidence of human cases in Turkey—at least 20 in about 2 weeks.

The Nature report, by Declan Butler, says the virus samples from both Turkish patients have a mutation in the polymerase protein, which serves to replicate the virus's genetic material. The change is a substitution of lycine for glutamic acid at position 627. The same mutation has been seen before, including in Eurasian poultry recently and in the one person who died in the 2003 outbreak of H7N7 avian flu in the Netherlands.

"The polymerase mutation is one of the ten genetic changes that gave rise to the 1918 pandemic flu virus," the story says. The mutation indicates adaptation to humans, said Alan Hay, director of the WHO flu laboratory at the NIMR, as quoted in the story.

The story goes on to say that the Turkish samples are the first in which the polymerase and hemagglutinin mutations have been found together. "They could make it easier for humans to catch the virus from poultry," it says. "But they might also favor human-to-human transmission." Together, the two mutations help the virus survive and infect cells in the nose and throat, increasing the chance that coughing would spread it via droplets, the story says.

However, Hay said it is hard to predict how the mutations will affect the virus's behavior and that "just two changes are unlikely to create efficient human-to-human transmission on their own," according to the report.

One other mutation—a change at position 153 of the hemagglutinin protein—also was found in one of the virus samples, the story said. Maria Cheng of the WHO told Nature it was unclear what effect that change has.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, publisher of this Web site, said the findings point up how little is known about exactly what changes would be sufficient to produce a pandemic strain of virus.

"We know what changes occurred in the 1918 virus, but is that the example or is that the model?" he said. "In other words, does it have to be exactly like that, or can it be a series of changes somewhat like that? We don't know if some changes are more important than others or if some changes have to happen together."

While virologists have learned a lot, "there's more that we don't know than we do know," Osterholm added. "The thing I think is concerning about the situation in Turkey is we continue to see the potential for mutations to occur, which in turn leads us to the possibility that all the wrong mutations might occur and result in a 1918-like experience."

See also:

Jan 12 WHO statement on analysis of H5N1 virus from Turkish patients

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2006_01_12/en/index.html

[Joseph]

Although in last several years people are inclined to believe in conspiracy theories, I dont think they will believe in that, may be a few but not much.

But few months ago, some Armenians in this forum said "Turks will name this disease aftern an Armenian". For Turks Armenia and Armenians do not mean much, when they hear news about Diaspora effort to hurt Turkey or news about Azerbeyjan they got a little bit angry but overall Turkish people are not interested about Armenia, simply dont care. I think for Armenians it's the opposite. I check Armenian news regularly, almost everyday there is news about Turks, or Turkey.
The problem with this news story about the bird flu is that it will have more impact in Armenian society than Turkish. Armenians are inclined to hear negative news about Turkey, they will probably produce their own conspiracy theories out of this news..

Then perhaps since you don't care you'll follow suit and ignore us by leaving the site?

[Reincarnated Am]

Good One!!!!!

Then perhaps since you don't care you'll follow suit and ignore us by leaving the site?

[Gavur]

God Forbid Neighbor Like That

15:51 20/01/06

In concern with the announcement of Turkey’s Agriculture Minister Mehdi Ekker that there is information that some of Turkey’s neighboring countries have been infected with bird flu yet they hide the fact from international organizations Panorama.am’s correspondent turned to the head of the interdepartmental Headquarter of Struggle Against Bird Flu deputy Minister of Agriculture Levon Rukhkian.

The latter said: “You know the meaning of such announcements perfectly, therefore we don’t want to touch upon them. We had no case of bird flu. From January 22-24 the very experts that now work in Turkey will arrive in Armenia. Thus, we have nothing to hide from world public. The announcement of the Turkish side does not correspond to the reality in Armenia.”

We think that Mehdi Ekker is trying to win some political dividents from the situation, according to Turkish tradition, instead of solving the problems of his country./Panorama.am/