Poverty hampers bird flu fight
Rain is falling across the Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece as health workers are on alert and Turkey enters another day at the epicentre of worldwide bird flu fears.McLoughney estimates that in the province where the flu outbreak began, Agri in eastern Turkey, as many as 40% of women are illiterate. The reason for the higher concentration of illiteracy among females is that traditional families often do not value any education for women, and keep girls out of school. Unicef and the Turkish Education Ministry are currently conducting a major campaign to persuade families to send girls to school, but it is sometimes a tough battle against ingrained cultural practices.
