Raniya, Iraq – A new threat in Iraq was confirmed Monday – the Middle East’s first case of the deadly bird flu virus.
A 15-year-old Kurdish girl who died Jan. 17 had the deadly H5N1 strain, Iraqi and U.N. health officials said. The discovery prompted a large-scale slaughter of domestic birds in the northern area where the teen died as the World Health Organization formed a team to try to contain the disease’s spread.
“We regretfully announce that the first case of bird flu has appeared in Iraq,” Iraqi Health Minister Abdel Mutalib Mohammed told reporters. “The results show infection with the deadly H5N1.”
WHO officials confirmed the finding, though it was not clear how the girl, Shangen Abdul Qader, who died in the northern Kurdish town of Raniya, contracted the disease. Just north of Raniya is a reservoir used as a stopover by migratory birds from Turkey, where at least 21 cases of H5N1 have been recorded.
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak in Iraq is especially alarming because the country 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.
Policeman Khalil Khudur said he led a team that killed 3,000 birds, mainly chickens and ducks, in Sarkathan, a village of about 600 homes 4 miles north of Raniya. Villagers and cars were sprayed with chemicals to kill any trace of the disease.
But there were fears that they might be too late.
Health officials are investigating the death of the girl’s uncle, Hamasour Mustapha, 50, on Friday after he showed symptoms similar to bird flu. At least two other people have been admitted to a hospital in Sulaymaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, with similar symptoms.
WHO is readying an emergency team to carry out epidemiological tests and examine Iraqis exhibiting bird flulike symptoms, spokesman Dick Thompson said.
Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form spread easily among humans, triggering a pandemic capable of killing millions. Most human cases have been traced to contact with birds.
