The World Health Organisation (WHO) said today it had confirmed that two children hospitalised in Turkey had contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
A WHO spokeswoman said the children, a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, were from the same region where three other children died from bird flu this week. She declined to give further details.
"A 5-year-old and an 8-year-old have been confirmed with the H5N1 virus, these are children that are already hospitalised," said WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng.
The virus killed 74 people in east Asia before it claimed the lives of the three children from the same family in eastern Turkey this week.
WHO had confirmed that the two elder children of the family died from bird flu.
But, Ms Cheng said, said there was "further testing going on" on blood samples from the third case, an 11-year-old girl who had died.
A team of WHO doctors are in Turkey to investigate the deaths - the first human bird flu fatalities on the edge of Europe - but were stuck in the Turkish capital due to fog.
Experts plan to study the outbreak for signs the virus was passing from person to person, mutating into a form easily transmitted among humans. They say a pandemic among humans could kill millions and cause massive economic losses.
