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KurdistanObserver.com
U.S. Health Experts Leave Iraq After Completing
Bird Flu Inspection of Kurdistan Areas
BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 13, 2006 (AP) - A team of U.S. health experts left Iraq
on Monday after completing an inspection of areas in Kurdistan (northern Iraq)
where the country's only confirmed bird flu case in a human was found.
Health authorities believe one other suspect case, the dead uncle of the
15-year-old girl confirmed as having the deadly H5N1 strain, may also have
contracted the disease, but final tissue sample results have not yet been
obtained.
About nine other people have been hospitalized with bird flu-like symptoms, but
tests have not yet confirmed they carry the disease.
The team from the World Health Organization, which was assisted by two American
veterinary scientists based at a U.S. Navy laboratory in Egypt, arrived in Iraq
between Feb. 4-5 and visited areas health facilities across northern Iraq as
well as the town of Raniya where the girl who had bird flu came from.
U.S. Embassy health attache Jon Bowersox said the two American scientists
returned to Cairo on Monday carrying samples of several suspect cases to be
tested at their laboratory. The results can take between 24 hours to two weeks
to come through.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the six-member U.N. health team would remain in
Iraq for several more days.
The team urged Iraqi authorities to continue implementing strict agricultural
controls and said information on curbing the deadly virus will be distributed,
Bowersox said.
Tamiflu medicine to treat bird flu is being sent to Iraq, while more equipment,
such as personal protection clothing, is needed, Bowersox said.
Meanwhile, five angry poultry farmers interrupted a press conference on bird flu
Monday, demanding compensation for culling their chickens as part of efforts to
contain the disease.
But Agriculture Minister Ali al-Bahadli said authorities were responsible for
compensating bird owners who had killed birds within a 20 mile radius of Raniya,
the Kurdistan town where the girl who had bird flu came from.
"We didn't give orders to cull birds in other places and we are not responsible
for those who cull their birds by themselves," al-Bahadli told the protesters.
Bird flu has killed at least 88 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003, according
to the WHO. A WHO-sanctioned laboratory recently confirmed another two deaths in
Indonesia. Birds carrying the virus have also been detected in Italy, Greece and
Nigeria
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