Influenza is known to have originated from birds and to have caused three extensive epidemics in humans in the 20th century, with at least 30 million deaths. Discovery of new human cases after 1998 caused by transmission of the H5N1 influenza virus from poultry that acquired the virus from wild birds is a new catastrophe in human health. The epidemic of H5N1 influenza A virus in poultry began in South Asia with about 140 human cases and a 52% fatality rate. In Turkey, the first human cases of avian influenza occurred in four children from a family in Doğu Bayazıt, a town in Eastern Turkey. These were followed by six cases from the same town (three in one family) and an 8 year old girl and her aunt from Van, a city near Doğu Bayazıt. All cases were between 3-18 years of age, and four of the cases died. All had pneumonia and severe cases had pancytopenia and increased muscle enzymes. Most deaths occurred in patients older than 10 years of age. The Turkish government decided to destroy all poultry grown in villages without any testing. Since the culling of some 1,600,000 poultry, there have been no new human cases reported. Although the occurrence of 12 cases in a small geographical area, within families, and in such a short time span raises suspicion regarding increased possibility of transmission from poultry to human and possibly from human to human, the cause of the epidemic can be considered as a result of contact with infected or dead chickens, since this history was present in all cases.