Nigerialaislapsissa epäillään linturuttoa:

By Daniel Flynn

KADUNA, Nigeria, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Nigerian health officials waited anxiously on Sunday for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

The virus broke out in early January among poultry in Nigeria, Africa' s most populous country, but the H5N1 diagnosis was confirmed only last week and authorities are struggling to contain it as it spreads rapidly to farms across the north.

Health Ministry officials visited the families of two children who live near an infected farm in the northern state of Kaduna on Sunday and said the children may be moved to hospital.

" We are suspecting this might be something, but we are trying to get the real case notes," said Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi, after visiting the family.

People can catch the virus from contact with infected birds, but it cannot be spread from one human to another.

Experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since early 2003, may mutate into a form that can spread from human to human and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

The outbreak of H5N1 in Nigeria is the first known appearance of the virus in Africa.

Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more than 20 farms have been hit in Kano state alone.

Farmers in three other states have also reported mass deaths of poultry, local media reported.

Farmers have received little information on how to handle the disease, and workers have been using their bare hands to dispose of thousands of infected birds, raising fears of a large number of human infections.

" This is an emergency situation and it is very important to stop the handling, trading and movement of birds," said Mohammed Belhoecine, Nigeria representative of the World Health Organisation.

Trade in live birds continued in northern cities, although sellers in Kano complained of falling trade on Sunday.

" I used to sell 50-60 birds a day but now can' t sell more than four because of bird flu," said Ibrahim Maikanti, a chicken seller at Kano' s Sabon Gari market.

As in most of sub-Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere in Nigeria -- in villagers' backyards, in city streets, by the side of the road, in crowded markets, on buses. Most poultry is bought live and slaughtered at home.

The government has ordered suspect birds culled and suspect farms quarantined, but there has been little sign of a coordinated government response on the ground.