The United States is sending a team of experts to Turkey to help deal with its outbreak of bird flu, which has spread in flocks and infected 18 people, the State Department said on Friday according to Reuters. Three infected children died last week in eastern Turkey, and 15 more people have tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but officials say their condition is not critical. Authorities are testing whether a 4-year-old girl who died on Friday was infected. The virus continues to circulate in East Asia also, and as winter gets under way in the Northern Hemisphere experts are afraid the epidemic will worsen in poultry and perhaps affect people even more. The United States is sending a team of experts to Turkey "to assess the avian flu situation there ... and make recommendations on what the United States can do to support efforts in Turkey to deal with and prepare for the potential outbreak of avian flu," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "The team will consist of experts in animal and human health surveillance, laboratory capacity and public health communications from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agency for International Development, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of State." The team will arrive on Monday and will join experts already there from the World Health Organization, including two experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has also sent experts to Turkey.
