BAGHDAD, Iraq – A 15-year-old girl who died nearly two weeks ago was infected with bird flu, Iraqi Health Minister Abdul Mutalib Ali Mohammed said Monday.
The World Health Organization had said Jan. 19 that the teenager in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah did not have the disease. But it reported Sunday that additional analysis tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, which is highly lethal and can be contracted from infected poultry. WHO said it would conduct further tests in Britain.
The girl, Shangen Abdul Qader, died after experiencing severe respiratory symptoms characteristic of the disease that has killed at least 85 people since 2003, mostly in Southeast Asia. The H5N1 strain has not been transmitted easily from person to person, but health researchers fear the virus could alter and become highly contagious among humans, leading to a worldwide pandemic.
The Iraqi government has warned that the country’s porous borders, which have also allowed an influx of foreign fighters to join Iraq’s insurgency, could make it difficult to stop the spread of disease from neighboring countries. In Turkey, which borders Iraq to the north, the deaths of four children have been attributed to bird flu. The tenuous security climate in much of the country could also make dealing with the outbreak difficult, although the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, which borders Turkey, is considered perhaps the safest part of the country.
In a statement issued Monday, Iraq’s Health Ministry appealed to the WHO and other international organizations to “move fast to supply our country with scientific expertise and the drugs and supplies needed to combat the disease.”
Health officials raised the prospect of more bird flu diagnoses and are looking into two other suspected cases, Mohammed, the Iraqi health minister said.
Mohammed Khoshnaw, health minister for the Kurdish regional government, said doctors suspect at least two more people could be infected. A doctor at the Ranya hospital, in the town northwest of Sulaymaniyah where Shangen contracted the disease, confirmed two women there had symptoms similar to hers.
WHO is sending a team to Iraq for further investigation.
Health teams cordoned off areas in and around Ranya on Monday and began Iraq’s first bird slaughter.
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 four miles north of Ranya. Villagers and cars were also sprayed with chemicals to kill any trace of the disease.
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