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Another bird flu victim
30/01/2006 14:05 - (SA)
Sulaimaniyah - An Iraqi Kurdish girl who died earlier this month of suspected bird flu did have the deadly H5N1 virus, the Iraqi health minister said on Monday.
Abdel Mutalib Mohammed Ali told reporters that Shanjin Abdel Qader, 14, had contracted H5N1, despite initial reports from a World Health Organisation laboratory in Amman saying test results were negative.
The minister headed to the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah and met with local health officials as well as doctors at the city hospital to discuss efforts to stop the spread of the virus, which has killed four people in neighbouring Turkey.
"We are calling on Iraqis not to panic or listen to rumours, but at the same to inform us if they suspect anything," he said on Iraqi television. "Since the first cases were reported up in Turkey we have been taking all the necessary measures to deal with any possible influenza."
But he warned Iraqis "not to approach domestic birds and poultry as this is the main way of spreading the disease".
Abdel Qader was a from a remote region of northern Iraq near the Turkish and Iranian borders. Her uncle died on Friday after suffering flu-related symptoms and his samples were sent to Amman for testing as well.
Health officials in Sulaimaniyah report that 12 people are in quarantine and under observation for possibly having the virus.
- AFP
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