Iran denies bird flu deaths

If bird flu were confirmed as the cause of death, the cases would be the first human deaths from the virus in Iran, which first detected it in birds in February. It has killed people in neighbouring Turkey, Iraq and Azerbaijan, Reuters informs.

"Fortunately, these two cases were negative for avian flu. There is no confirmed case until now," Health Minister Kamran Lankarani told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva.

On Monday an Iranian medical official told Reuters that the 41-year-old man and his 26-year-old sister from the northwestern city of Kermanshah had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza that has killed 123 people around the world.

Iranian officials also said on Monday that they were sending samples for testing to international laboratories, but on Tuesday the relevant parties had not received them.

In Cairo, the WHO's regional adviser for emerging diseases, Hassan al-Bushra, said the agency had been told the results in Iran were negative for bird flu and that his office had not received any samples from Iran for testing.

The two siblings were among five members of a family who became sick. Surviving relatives were in hospital and one was dangerously ill.