Azerbaijan tests 10 people for suspected bird flu

GENEVA, Mar 9 (Reuters) Azerbaijan is sending samples from at least 10 people, including three who died, to Britain for bird flu tests, the World Health Organisation said today.

The Azeris were believed to be from one or two families from an area where the deadly H5N1 virus has been found among birds, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.

''There have been three deaths, with symptoms somewhat similar to H5N1 infection,'' Cheng said. ''The samples are from a cluster of 10 or 11 people in a region where H5N1 has apparently led to a die-off in birds.'' No testing had been done in Azerbaijan, but the samples were being sent later in the day for testing at a WHO collaborating laboratory in Britain, she added.

On Saturday, Deputy Health Minister Abbas Velibeyev said a family of six may have contracted the disease, although it was too early to be sure. The preliminary diagnosis was severe pneumonia, but the family -- whose two children died -- at the time kept chickens, leading to suspicions, he said.

The samples being sent to Britain were believed to include ones relating to this family.

Azerbaijan, which lies at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, discovered the H5N1 strain of bird flu among wild birds last month. Bird flu has since affected a poultry farm near the capital Baku.

WHO officials have been in the former Soviet state since bird flu outbreaks among humans and flocks in neighbouring Turkey to help Azeri authorities carry out risk assessment and boost preparedness, according to Cheng.

The H5N1 virus has killed 96 people worldwide since 2003, in a total of seven countries in Asia and the West Asia, according to the WHO, a United Nations agency.

Scientists fear it is only a matter of time before the virulent virus mutates into a form that passes easily among people, triggering a pandemic which could kill millions.

REUTERS SHR RN1752