Turkey reported three people infected with a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital Ankara today, marking a further westward advance of human infection towards the fringes of Europe.
The first case outside eastern Asia of the virus jumping from birds to humans emerged in Turkey last Wednesday. Three children in the remote eastern Van region died of the highly potent H5N1 strain that has killed some 70 people in Asia.
Ankara Governor Kemal Onal told the state-run Anatolia news agency today that two children and one adult had been diagnosed with the infection in the capital, about 400 km (250 miles) from Turkey's densely populated largest city, Istanbul, Europe and the Mediterranean area.
The agency said a 5-year-old boy had also been admitted to hospital with suspected bird flu in Corum in central Turkey. CNN Turk television said two of the three infected Ankara children had been brought to Ankara from nearby Beypazari after contact with dead wild birds.
It seems highly likely the children who died in Van region also caught the virus directly from chickens.
But world health authorities are concerned human exposure to the bird flu could lead to emergence of a mutation allowing easier transmission between humans - and raising the prospect of a global pandemic.
A team of World Health Organisation doctors is in Turkey to help investigate the deaths and look for any signs of transmission between humans.
Moscow raised the early prospect of economic damage to Turkey's vital tourist industry, warning Russians against travelling to Turkey after the human infections.