The H5N1 flu virus and I go way back.
In 1997, I watched as more than a million chickens were slaughtered in Hong Kong to combat the first major global outbreak of the disease. Eighteen people were sickened by the virus and six died, all of whom had close contact with the birds. They were the first deaths in humans.
Though officials in Hong Kong and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were pretty sure H5N1 was unlikely to spread from person to person (and still are), there were mysteries surrounding this flu strain that had suddenly acquired the ability to infect people. Among them: Some workers in Hong Kong’s poultry markets had antibodies to the virus but didn’t fall ill.
It fell off my radar until late 2005, when birds started dying in biblical numbers in remote eastern Turkey, where residents live in proximity to their animals. When bird flu is detected in an area, best practice is to promptly kill all domesticated fowl to prevent spread of the disease. The government was slow to react and farmers in the area only reluctantly culled their birds, often their main source of income. More than a dozen people were sickened and about a third died, including three of Zeki and Marifet Kocyigit’s four children.