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U.S. Health Experts Leave Iraq After Completing
Bird Flu Inspection of Kurdistan (Northern Iraq)
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.
AP
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