Romania suspects man of having bird flu

BUCHAREST, Feb 26 (Reuters) A Romanian man suspected of having bird flu was taken to hospital from a village in the south of the country where the deadly H5N1 virus was detected in poultry earlier this month, authorities said today.

Officials said the 21-year-old man from the village of Cetate, about 500 km west of the Danube delta where avian flu was first discovered in birds in October, was taken by ambulance to Bucharest for complete investigations.

''We are ready to admit him (to hospital), tonight he will have preliminary tests done,'' Adrian Streinu-Cercel, the chief of Romania's main virus laboratory, told Realitatea TV private television station.

Cercel said this was the eleventh suspected case of human bird flu in Romania but there have been no confirmed cases so far in humans.

Avian flu has been detected in 34 villages across Romania since October when the virus was first detected in the Danube Delta.

Today Romania detected new suspected cases of bird flu in domestic fowl in a village in the south-east, but more tests were needed to see if it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Reuters TM VP0007