Suspected bird flu case in Azerbaijan

The boy's sister was one of five people who died last year in an outbreak of H5N1 strain bird flu in the former Soviet republic between Turkey and Russia, the ministry said.

"It is too early to speak of an exact diagnosis. The boy's blood sample has been sent for analysis to a laboratory in London and is also being analysed in Baku," said a Health Ministry official who did not want to be named.

The boy is being treated in a respiratory illness institute in the capital, Baku.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) sent a team of experts to help Azerbaijan's health officials manage the previous outbreak, which began last spring.

The boy now in hospital is from the southern region of Salyan, which was one of two centres of last year's outbreak.

WHO experts traced the infection then to local people plucking migratory birds to use their feathers. It said the outbreak was contained and since April last year there have been no confirmed cases in Azerbaijan.

Bird flu has killed 163 people since 2003, according to the WHO. H5N1 is the most deadly strain so far identified. Reuters