DOGUBAYAZIT, Jan 15: A Turkish girl died on Sunday from suspected bird flu, while her brother was critically ill in hospital after testing positive for the virus. Although the Health Ministry said initial tests on 12-year-old Fatma Ozcan proved negative, doctors still suspect she contracted the deadly disease.

If both siblings are confirmed to have bird flu, it would bring the number of human cases in Turkey to 20.

The ministry said tests on her brother Muhammet, 5, showed he has the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has already killed three other children in Dogubayazit, the same town in eastern Van province that the Ozcan family come from.

The Turkish victims are the first human cases reported outside east Asia since H5N1 re-emerged in 2003. The virus mostly affects birds but has infected about 150 people and killed at least 79.

The H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds and poultry across large parts of Turkey, particularly in poor villages stretching from Istanbul at the gates of Europe to Van near the Iranian and Iraqi borders.

Fatma was buried late on Sunday in a simple funeral attended by family members in the largely-Kurdish town, which has been hardest hit by the bird flu outbreak. Her father fainted at the site of her coffin, a Reuters cameraman said.

Several tests are required to establish whether a patient has H5N1. One of the children who died last week initially tested negative.—Reuters