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China flu deaths, Turkey ups ante

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(CNN) -- The World Health Organization says two more people have died from bird flu in China, as Turkey sets up a bird flu crisis center in its capital Ankara to curb a growing spate of human cases.

The WHO's Roy Wadia in Beijing said on Wednesday the deadly H5N1 strain killed a 10-year-old girl from Guangxi province in the south of the country, while a 35-year-old man died in eastern Jiangxi province.

The latest deaths brings the country's total bird flu death to five. (Full story)

Turkey, meanwhile, confirmed a case of the deadly virus in that country on Tuesday, bringing the number of people who have contracted the disease to 15, officials say.

The rise in the number of people who have caught bird flu in Turkey in such a short time -- 15 cases in a week, with three children dead -- has put experts and neighboring nations on high alert.

However, a World Health Organization official told Turkey there was "no reason to panic." European Regional Director Marc Danzon told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara that the country was taking "appropriate and satisfactory measures" to handle the outbreak.

Bulgaria has veterinarians and border officials on notice, and Greece is stepping up checks and disinfections at its main border crossing.

More than 70 people have died from the disease since it emerged in 2003, all but three of those in Asia.

The latest case in Turkey was a 37-year-old woman who lived in the east-central province of Sivas and was exposed to diseased chickens, according to the WHO.

Two of the 15 -- children from the same family -- died last week, the first known bird flu deaths outside of China and Southeast Asia.

A third sibling also died, but the cause of death was never determined. Christine McNab, a spokeswoman for the WHO, told CNN that health officials assumed the child had died of bird flu, but no tissue samples were taken that could prove that.

Up to another 100 suspected cases were under investigation, officials said Tuesday.

The Turkish government has sent teams to 21 of the country's 81 provinces to begin mass killings of infected poultry.

In Istanbul, the country's largest city, two of the poorest areas were placed under quarantine, and residents were ordered not to transport poultry from the area.

The 13 surviving victims who have tested positive for H5N1 in Turkish laboratories are awaiting confirmatory test results from the WHO.

McNab told CNN in a telephone interview that investigators were trying to determine why so many people had been infected so quickly.

"It might be because children were home for the holidays, maybe playing with birds around the house, and sick birds are easier to catch," she said.

Most of the confirmed cases are in children, and the Turkish government has initiated a campaign to teach people how to limit their exposure to diseased animals.

The latest outbreaks of the disease in poultry have been reported in Izmir, the country's third-largest city, and in Isparta, according to the provinces' governors.

Outbreaks among poultry have been identified from east to west and in the north of Turkey.

The government has begun distributing leaflets in affected areas to educate people about the disease; its crisis center in Ankara is fielding calls from people worried about their livestock or themselves.

During the Muslim Eid al Adha period -- a key Islamic feast day on which animals are slaughtered -- imams are also helping in the effort, dispensing information about the virus during morning prayers at mosques in the affected areas.

But officials said some people, fearful of the economic loss, were hiding their fowl to prevent them from being culled.

About 100,000 treatment courses of the drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) arrived Friday night in the country, the WHO said.

The antiviral is being dispensed both to people known to be infected and to people deemed at risk because of exposure.

The director of WHO's European office, Dr. Marc Danzon, is slated to arrive Wednesday in Ankara to meet with Health Minister Akdag.

In Rome, Health Minister Francesco Storace called for a European-wide initiative to help Turkey eradicate the virus.

"It should be headed by the European Union, but if Europe doesn't do it, we will," he told CNN. "We have to act. We can't just sit around and wait for the pandemic."

Italy had already offered Turkey pharmaceuticals but had received no response from Turkish government officials, he said.

CNN Correspondent Paula Newton, Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci and CNN Turk's Kaya Heyse contributed to this report

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