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KurdistanObserver.com
WHO team arrives in Iraqi Kurdistan to check bird flu
ARBIL, (Southern Kurdistan), Feb 5, 2006 (AFP)
- An eight-member team of the World Health Organisation arrived Sunday in Iraqi
Kurdistan to help fight off the spread of bird flu which has claimed its first
victim in the region, a senior official said.
The WHO team arrived at the Arbil international airport at 10:30 am (0730
GMT) and was set to meet later Sunday with health minister Jamal Abdul Hameed of
the Arbil administration of Kurdistan.
A massive cull of poultry has been underway in the northern Kurdistan region
after an outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus among birds.
The disease, which struck after hitting neighbouring Turkey last month, has
claimed at least one human life in Iraq and a handful of other cases are under
investigation there.
Iraq confirmed that a 15-year-old girl in Kurdistan had died from the H5N1
virus in January.
Initial reports from a WHO laboratory in Amman said that test results for the
virus were negative, but Iraqi authorities later said that the girl was a bird
flu victim.
Tests are still under way in Britain on virus samples from the girl's uncle,
who also died of a pulmonary infection, and from a woman who hails from the same
region and is currently in hospital.
Authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have quarantined 14 people suspected of
suffering from bird flu. |
