Number Of Human Bird Flu Cases Rises To 160

On Tuesday, The U.N. health agency raised its official tally of people worldwide who have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus to 160, after laboratory tests in London confirmed that at least 12 people in Turkey have contracted the disease.

According to the Associated Press, the death toll from the disease has risen to 85, including four in Turkey.

Nine more samples, from individuals confirmed by Turkish health officials as H5N1 positive, are still being examined in Britain to verify they carried the disease.

The agency does not officially update its number of confirmed cases until the disease has been verified in a laboratory outside the country of the outbreak, meaning that WHO’s figures are often behind actual national counts.