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Three new bird flu cases in Turkey

A Turkish Agriculture official collects chickens at Dogubayazit.

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Deaths in Turkey raise fears deadly bird flu may spread west. (1:37)

• Human deaths from deadly strain

• Bird flu claims 3rd Turkish child

• Bird flu suspect dies in Turkey

• Bird flu tops Asia's 2006 concerns

• New death in China

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DOGUBAYAZIT, Turkey (AP) -- Two children and an adult, who were hospitalized in the Turkish capital, Ankara, have tested positive for bird flu, the city's governor, Kemal Onal, announced Sunday.

It was unclear if it was the H5N1 strain that has already killed at least two children in Turkey.

The three were the first confirmed bird flu cases outside the eastern city of Van, where two other young children already were being treated for bird flu at a hospital.

A British laboratory has confirmed H5N1 in a 5-year-old hospitalized in Van, near the Iranian border, while preliminary tests in Turkey also found the strain in an 8-year-old, officials said.

The British lab also confirmed a 14-year-old boy and his 15-year-old sister who died last week had H5N1, and are continuing tests on their 11-year-old sister, who died Friday, said Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization.

Huseyin Avni Sahin, head physician at the Van hospital said Sunday the two young children were in intensive care, as was another person with similar symptoms.

Dozens of people, who had recently been in close contact with fowl, have been hospitalized with suspected bird flu cases across Turkey. Tests were under way to determine if any of them had bird flu but the reports have already triggered a panic atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Russia's chief epidemiologist has urged his countrymen not to travel to Turkey -- a popular vacation destination for Russians -- because of the bird flu outbreak, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday.

Despite the deaths, workers in the village of Dogubayazit, where the siblings lived, still had trouble Sunday persuading some villagers to hand over their fowl for destruction.

The children's cases are the first human fatalities from H5N1 outside east Asia in the current outbreak, authorities said. A delegation of WHO representatives, European health officials and Akdag flew to the eastern city of Erzurum, planning to travel to Van by road to assess the situation on Sunday. The visit was postponed Saturday because of bad weather.

The doctor who treated the children said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens.

Authorities are closely watching H5N1 for fear it could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and spark a pandemic. Birds in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia have recently tested positive for H5N1.

Health officials believe the best way to fight the spread of bird flu is the wholesale destruction of poultry in the affected area. That's hard enough when the animals are in pens, but it is extraordinarily difficult in places like Dogubayazit, where they often roam free.

"This is a disease in fowl, the people who are in contact with them are at risk," Akdag said. "This is the problem which must be addressed."

The officials have had difficulties here explaining the danger of close interaction with fowl to local residents, or the need to deliver all birds for destruction whether or not they appear sick.

On Sunday, a group of Turkish workers in Dogubayazit had to climb over a wall when a village woman refused to open the door and hand over her several chickens, insisting they were fine. The workers could not persuade her to part with the chickens and withdrew, saying they would come back with police.

It is a scene often repeated across the impoverished eastern parts of the country, where sometimes chickens are a family's most valuable possession.

Some people, however, who realized the danger were seen inviting the workers to collect their fowl in Dogubayazit Sunday. More than 30,000 fowl have been culled so far, private NTV television said Sunday.

The WHO is investigating whether the disease had been transmitted from human to human, Cheng said earlier. But Akdag said there was no reason to suspect it had.

So far, H5N1 has been capable in rare cases of passing from poultry to humans in close contact with them, but not from human to human.

Akdag urged calm, but Dr. Gencay Gursoy, head of the Istanbul Physicians Association, said the situation was grave.

"Turkey and the world are facing the threat of a serious infection," he said.