Turkey said on Friday its battle against a bird flu outbreak in people and poultry was being made harder by the failure of neighboring countries to admit to having the deadly H5N1 virus.
"It is unofficially known that this illness exists in our neighboring countries which are ruled by closed regimes, but these countries do not declare this because of their systems," Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker told a news conference.
He did not name the countries but Iran and Syria are two likely targets of the criticism. Health experts are concerned neighboring countries are not taking enough preventive measures against bird flu.
Read the full story at Reuters. On Friday the UN sent experts to Armenia, also considered to be at risk. Effect Measure covers the details of a possible human case in Iraq (while you're on their site make sure to read the primers on virus mutation in parts 1, 2, 3 and 4). Turkey has so far culled some 1 million birds.