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ERBIL,
Kurdistan-Iraq, 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 Erbil international
airport at 10:30 am (0730 GMT) and was set to meet
later Sunday with health minister Jamal Abdul Hameed
of the Erbil 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.
Turkey, which has had 21 cases of the flu, was
previously the only country outside Asia to report
fatalities from the virus. Four people have died
there.
The first known cases of H5N1 in humans were
recorded in Hong Kong in 1997, when six people died.
Since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003 there
have been 160 confirmed cases, 86 of them fatal.
The WHO said last week it was also sending thousands
of doses of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu to help
fight off the deadly disease.
AFP
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