KurdistanObserver.com

Sulaimani, Kurdistan-Iraq, - A fresh bird flu scare has erupted in the Kurdish region in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) with reports of 162 suspected cases almost two weeks after a 15-year-old girl died of the deadly strain.

In the Thursday issue of pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, the head of the pre-emption committee in the Kurdistan Province Najm Eddin Mohammed announced that 162 people have been admitted to the diagnosis center on suspicion of contracting the virus.

Mohammed told al-Hayat that the virus has proliferated throughout Rania, a region southwest of Sulaimanyiah on the border with Turkey, and described the influx as a 'crisis.'

'The threat (of bird flu) has been confirmed after the virus has been able to cross the province's borders,' he said.

The virus is believed to have spread from neighboring Turkey, which has seen four deaths and a number of suspected cases so far. On January 17, a 15-year-old villager in Rania died of the deadly flu.

'Two other citizens have died of the infectious virus while two other cases are in intensive care, in addition to four other cases,' Mohammed added.

The World Health Organizations has announced that two suspected cases of bird flu are currently being investigated in its London laboratory.

The testing of the samples of the young girl's 33-year-old uncle, who died on January 27 and another 54-year-old woman, who has been admitted to the hospital in northern Iraq after showing flu-like symptoms, is underway.

The health minister in Sulaimanyiah, Mohammed Khoshnaw, had earlier confirmed that there are no bird flu cases in the area, stating that the preemptive measures implemented by the authorities in the city 'are capable of preventing the influx or spread of the disease in the province.'

But the authorities retracted their statement later, admitting that bird flu had spread to northern Iraq.

Following the authorities' confirmation of the bird flu cases, alarm has spread among the inhabitants of the Kurdish region Zakho after a large number of slaughtered birds were seen along the Khabour River that flows from bordering Turkey.

The villagers in Zakho have reported the incident to the local authorities in Zakho and Duhok.

A health official in Dahouk said that villagers spotted ashore the river more than 100 dead birds, all suspected of having been slaughtered by Turkish villagers across the border in a bid to det rid of all infected birds.

Meanwhile in Kurdish city of Erbil, health minister Jamal Abdel Hamid decried the lack of tools that would enable the government to handle an imminent outbreak.

'The preemptive measures implemented by the heath authorities are ineffective in the face of the increasing number of infected people in Kurdistan,' Abdel Hamid was quoted in al-Hayat as saying.

Al-Hayat reported that a 35-year-old woman identified as Sarya Mirza is being hospitalized in an Erbil hospital on suspicion she has sustained the deadly flu.

The Iraqi authorities have imposed a quarantine on the villages bordering Turkey and sent in launched teams to slaughter fowl in areas suspected of carrying the disease. Roads into the mountainous Rania area, site of the first flu death, have been blocked.

The area comprises some 50 villages, home to 400,000 people.