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First bird flu deaths outside Asia

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First bird flu deaths outside Asia

A teenage brother and sister who died of bird flu were infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, said the UN’s health agency. It confirmed the first human fatalities from the deadly strain outside east Asia.

A laboratory in Britain had detected H5N1 in samples from the 14-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister, said World Health Organisation spokeswoman Maria Cheng.

Tests have yet to be completed on samples from their 11-year-old sister, who died of suspected bird flu on Friday.

Their doctor said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens.

Cheng said the spread of the disease from east Asia, where it has killed more than 70 people, was “a concern,” but that the global risk assessment of a human pandemic was unchanged.

“Right now these new cases in Turkey – they don’t elevate the global risk assessment, so we’re still in the same pandemic alert phase that we’ve been in for the last couple of years,” Cheng said.

More: news.scotsman.com

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