Iraq tests for bird flu after girl dies in north

By Twana Osman

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – Health officials in northern
Iraq have sent samples to Jordan for testing for the bird flu
virus H5N1 after a 14-year-old girl died in the Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniya, officials said on Wednesday.

Tijan Abdel-Qader died on arrival at the main hospital on
Tuesday after falling ill 15 days earlier in her home town of
Raniya, in Kurdistan close to the Turkish and Iranian borders,
Kurdish regional health minister Mohammed Khashnow said.

“The doctors in Sulaimaniya suspected this might be a case
(of bird flu),” he told Reuters. “They have sent samples to
Amman and we will know the results next week.”

Raniya is close to Lake Dukan, which draws many migratory
birds to the region and where Iraqi officials had been taking
measures to try to prevent domestic fowl from being infected.

“The rest of the family is in good health,” Khashnow added,
saying the family was not in the poultry business.

An Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman confirmed the suspected
case and a senior central government health official in Baghdad
confirmed a team had been dispatched to investigate.

“We were informed about it yesterday at noon (0900 GMT). We
sent a team this morning to check it out. We’re expecting to
hear from them this afternoon with an initial report,” said
Abdul Jalil Hassan, the head of a government committee set up
to monitor the threat after people died in neighboring Turkey.

“They will take samples and should have an idea of whether
it is the bird flu virus by this afternoon,” he told Reuters.

“We are not aware of any other cases in Iraq.”

Raniya lies north of Lake Dukan, about 20 km (12 miles)
west of the Iranian border, near the Iranian city of
Piranshahr. It is about 100 km (60 miles) south of the Turkish
border.

Hassan said measures had been taken around the lake to keep
domestic poultry away from wild birds arriving along winter
migration routes from the north.

In Zakho, an Iraqi Kurdish frontier city a few kilometers
(miles) from both the Turkish and Syrian borders, all poultry
were being slaughtered and burned, a Kurdish regional
government official said.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Baghdad)