Iraqi girl who died in Kurd region had bird flu

Country's first known case of disease prompts bird cull, officials say

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updated 1:00 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2006

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iraqi and U.N. health officials said Monday a 15-year-old girl who died this month was a victim of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the first confirmed case of the disease in the Middle East.

Tests were under way to determine if the girl’s 50-year-old uncle, who lived in the same house, also died of the virus. Shangen Abdul Qader died Jan. 17, just 10 days before her uncle, Hamasour Mustapha, who died of symptoms similar to bird flu, Iraqi health officials said.

Iraqi health authorities began killing domestic birds in northern Iraq, which borders Turkey, where at least 21 cases of the deadly virus have been detected. Turkey and Iraq also lie on a migratory path for numerous species of birds.

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“We regretfully announce that the first case of bird flu has appeared in Iraq,” Iraqi Health Minister Abdel Mutalib Mohammed said in the Kurdistan city of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Mohammed made the announcement after receiving results from the U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit laboratory in Egypt that conducted tests on the girl.

“The results show the inflection with the deadly H5N1,” he said. “We appeal to the World Health Organization to help us.”

Abdul Qader died after contracting a lung infection in her village of Raniya, about 60 miles south of the Turkish border and just 15 miles west of Iran.

The girl’s mother rejected the bird flu results, but acknowledged that a number of her chickens had mysteriously died.

“My daughter did not die from bird flu,” Fatima Abdullah, 50, told The Associated Press. “She did not like chickens nor had anything to do with them. She did not take care of these birds.”

The prospect of a bird flu outbreak in Iraq is especially alarming because it is gripped by armed insurgency and lacks the resources of other governments in the region. Government institutions, however, are most effective in the Kurdish-run area of the north where the girl lived.

Health experts also said controlling such an outbreak and killing birds en masse would be difficult due to Iraq’s limited veterinary and monitoring infrastructure.

“If an outbreak of avian influenza were to be proven, there would be a lot of support needed,” said Maria Zampaglione, spokeswoman at the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

CONTINUED : More tests planned

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