January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

SULAIMANIYAH, Jan 30: Iraq confirmed on Monday 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 Organization laboratory in Amman saying test results for the virus were negative.

He urged the international community to offer urgent help to Iraq to prevent any spread of the deadly disease, which has killed more than 80 people worldwide since 2003.

“The teenager Shanjin Abdel Qader, from the region of Raniya, who died on January 17, succumbed to H5N1 virus,” the minister said, adding that she had contracted the disease after touching a dead bird in her house three days before.

“We took her samples to the international laboratory and initial test results were negative, but later more thorough testing showed indications of bird flu or even H5N1,” Mohammed Ali said.

Mohammed Khushnow, a senior health official in the northern Kurdish region of Sulaimaniyah, said there were 14 cases of suspected bird flu in the region, “of which 12, after initial tests, have been cleared of the disease, but two are highly suspect.”

Imad Ahmed, deputy prime minister of Sulaimaniyah, said 12 people had been quarantined after they fell ill with pneumonia, but could possibly be infected with H5N1.

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.—AFP