Four people test negative for bird flu in Israel
Four people in Israel suspected of having bird flu have tested negative for the virus, the health ministry said on Saturday, after the country detected its first cases of the H5N1 strain.
Two Israeli farms were confirmed on Friday to have infected poultry. Tests were being carried out on another two farms where H5N1 is suspected.
Bird flu has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, stoking fears the virus could mutate into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
Hospitals in Israel have been put on alert for patients arriving with symptoms of the H5N1 virus.
Three people who worked in poultry coops at the farms in southern Israel where the virus was discovered were admitted to isolation units at a hospital in the south.
A fourth worker who had also been in contact with turkeys at a farm about 70 km (45 miles) further north was admitted to another hospital.
“The results for the four were negative for bird flu,” a health ministry spokeswoman said. “At the moment I do not know of any further people who have been taken to hospital.”