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SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iraq on Monday confirmed its first case of bird flu, saying a teenage girl who died earlier this month in Kurdistan had succumbed to the deadly H5N1 virus.
Health Minister 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 her test results for the virus were negative.
"The teenager Shanjin Abdel Qader, from the region of Raniya, who died on January 17, succumbed to H5N1 virus," the minister said.
Iraq has called on the World Health Organisation to check the possible spread of avian flu in the country's Kurdish region where 12 people have been quarantined and a cull of birds is under way.
"We call on the World Health Organisation to send experts to confirm that Kurdistan is free of bird flu," said Imad Ahmed, deputy prime minister of Sulaimaniyah in Kurdish northern Iraq.
Ahmed said 12 people had been quarantined after they fell ill with pneumonia, but could possibly be infected with the fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu which has killed at least 80 people worldwide since 2003.
Iraq's Kurdish provinces, which lie on the border with Turkey, are a major poultry producing region supplying chicken and eggs for much of the entire country.
The dead girl's uncle has also died after suffering a pulmonary infection and samples from him are still being tested in Amman.
Another suspected case is 54-year-old Mariam Qadar, who hails from the same region as the two fatalities and was taken to hospital in Sulaimaniyah by her family on Wednesday.
"The analysis so far has not confirmed if she has the disease, but there is a suspicion," hospital director Shirku Abdallah told AFP.
The health minister headed to Kurdistan on Monday amid growing fears about the spread of the lethal form of avian flu spreading from across the border in infected Turkey.
"We are calling on Iraqis not to panic or listen to rumors, 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 the minister warned Iraqis "not to approach domestic birds and poultry as this is the main way of spreading the disease".
The government of Sulaimaniyah, run by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has decided to slaughter all poultry and birds in an area near the Turkish and Iranian borders.
The area, which consists of some 50 settlements, is not a major poultry producing region, and residents will be offered compensation.
"Poultry should only be slaughtered under the supervision of the agriculture department since individual measures can only contribute to the spread of the disease," said a government statement, warning of tough measures in the case of non-compliance.
"The virus of the bird flu exists in Kurdistan and we are warning the population, particularly in the four regions bordering Turkey and we are asking them to cooperate with teams from the ministry of agriculture, health and interior in slaughtering poultry," it added.
The statement did not specify if it was referring to the H5N1 strain.
Turkey, which has 21 cases of the flu, had previously been the only country outside Asia to report fatalities from the virus. Four people have died there.
Health officials in Iraq's three Kurdish provinces say a number of measures are being taken to stop the spread of the virus.
These include decontaminating trucks crossing the border, banning the import of Turkish poultry and prohibiting the sale of live chickens inside Kurdistan.
There is also a major public awareness campaign urging people to take precautions, including cooking instructions to minimize the risk of infection.
Scientists fear that the more the virus spreads, the greater the chance H5N1 will mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans.
This could spark a global pandemic that could claim millions of lives.
- AFP /ls
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