Eleven year old Hulya Kocyigit died early Friday morning, according to a spokesman for Van’s Yuzyil Hospital. Hulya was the third child from the same family to die of the virus, with her 14 year old brother Mehmet Ali dying last Sunday and her sister Fatma, 15, dying Thursday. Another child from the Kocyigit family is also being treated in the Van hospital.

Another 23 people are being treated in hospitals in the region with avian flu symptoms, with one being listed in a critical condition. Most of those hospitalised are children.

All of the Kocyigit children infected with the virus are believed to have been in close contact with sick chickens. The family, from the eastern town of Dogubayazit, is reported to have taken their poultry indoors during freezing winter conditions in the region and eaten some of the birds after they fell sick.

Avian flu has been detected among poultry in five separate regions in eastern and south eastern Turkey, with authorities having destroyed more than 7000 domestic birds in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.