Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Iraqi teenager dies in first bird flu case in Middle East

RANIYA, Iraq - Battered by rampant violence and political instability, Iraq faces a new threat: the first case of the deadly bird flu virus in the Middle East was confirmed Monday.

A 15-year-old Kurdish girl who died this month had the deadly H5N1 strain, Iraq 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 an emergency team to try to contain the disease's spread.

World Health Organization officials confirmed the finding, though it was not immediately clear how the girl, Shangen Abdul Qader, who died Jan. 17 in the northern Kurdish town of Raniya, contracted the disease.

Health officials are also investigating the death of the girl's uncle, Hamasour Mustapha, 50, on Friday after showing symptoms similar to bird flu.

At least two other people have been admitted to a hospital in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, with similar symptoms. Another 30 samples from northern Iraq are also being tested for bird flu.

Abdul Qader and her uncle lived in the same house in Raniya, about 60 miles south of the Turkish border and 15 miles west of Iran.

Health officials don't yet know how the girl contracted the deadly virus, but 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.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form spread easily among humans, triggering a pandemic capable of killing millions. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with birds.

[Last modified January 31, 2006, 00:31:49]