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Sulaimaniyah,
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.
Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur - Daily al-Hayat
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