Bird flu hits Iraq
IRAQ
The Number of Bird Flu Cases is Constantly Increasing
Agence France-Presse reports:
Iraq's Kurdistan region, which has confirmed its first human death from bird flu, is facing an acute shortage of the vital drug to fight the disease, a medical official said Tuesday. Local authorities in northern Iraq, meanwhile, have culled half a million birds in the border areas with Turkey and Iran.
"We are suffering from a lack of medicine to combat the virus," Tahseen Nameq, head of a joint Kurdish committee set up to combat the spread of the disease, told AFP
"We have received only 50 pills of Tamiflu," or just medicine for five cases, he said.
Iraqi Kurdistan has quarantined 14 people believed to be suffering from bird flu, but officials say that other than the fatality, only one case is suspected to be the H5N1 deadly strain.
Nameq said a massive programme has been launched to cull birds in Kurdistan, in border regions north of Sulaimaniya near Lake Dukan, in Raniya and also north of Arbil.
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.
Read the full story at
http://www.krg.org/articles/article_detail.asp?LangNr=12&RubricNr=24&ArticleNr=9084&LNNr=28&RNNr=70 (Jan 31, 2006)
More on Bird Flu in Iraq
WHO said it was urgently seeking further tests at a British laboratory to confirm the bird flu diagnosis and was dispatching a team of experts to help local health officials in Iraq's largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.
"We have 12 patients in Sulaimaniya that have lung infections that we suspect may be the bird flu virus," Kurdistan's deputy prime minister, Imad Ahmed, told Reuters, referring to one of the region's largest cities.
The most serious was 54-year-old Mariam Qader, who came from the same village as the teenage girl who died from bird flu on January 17 and is believed to be a distant relative of the victim.
Scientists say the H5N1 virus is mutating steadily and may eventually acquire the changes it needs to be easily transmitted from human to human. Because people lack any immunity to it, it could sweep the world in weeks or months, killing millions.
Read the whole article at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL138885.htm
(31 Jan, 2006)
Bombs Hit Christian Targets
Car bombs exploded in quick succession Sunday near four Christian churches and the office of the Vatican envoy, killing three people and raising new concerns about sectarian tensions.
Three people died in the bombing at the Church of the Virgin in Kirkuk, police said. At least nine people were injured in the bombings.
"This was a reaction from the al-Zarqawi people against Christians who they believe support the U.S. military in Iraq," senior Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Adeeb said.
A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Naseer al-Ani, called the bombings "terrorist acts."
At least 17 other people were killed in other violence around the country.
Read the whole article on www.kurd.org (Jan 29, 2006)
The Number of Bird Flu Cases is Constantly Increasing
Agence France-Presse reports:
Iraq's Kurdistan region, which has confirmed its first human death from bird flu, is facing an acute shortage of the vital drug to fight the disease, a medical official said Tuesday. Local authorities in northern Iraq, meanwhile, have culled half a million birds in the border areas with Turkey and Iran.
"We are suffering from a lack of medicine to combat the virus," Tahseen Nameq, head of a joint Kurdish committee set up to combat the spread of the disease, told AFP
"We have received only 50 pills of Tamiflu," or just medicine for five cases, he said.
Iraqi Kurdistan has quarantined 14 people believed to be suffering from bird flu, but officials say that other than the fatality, only one case is suspected to be the H5N1 deadly strain.
Nameq said a massive programme has been launched to cull birds in Kurdistan, in border regions north of Sulaimaniya near Lake Dukan, in Raniya and also north of Arbil.
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.
Read the full story at
http://www.krg.org/articles/article_detail.asp?LangNr=12&RubricNr=24&ArticleNr=9084&LNNr=28&RNNr=70 (Jan 31, 2006)
More on Bird Flu in Iraq
WHO said it was urgently seeking further tests at a British laboratory to confirm the bird flu diagnosis and was dispatching a team of experts to help local health officials in Iraq's largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.
"We have 12 patients in Sulaimaniya that have lung infections that we suspect may be the bird flu virus," Kurdistan's deputy prime minister, Imad Ahmed, told Reuters, referring to one of the region's largest cities.
The most serious was 54-year-old Mariam Qader, who came from the same village as the teenage girl who died from bird flu on January 17 and is believed to be a distant relative of the victim.
Scientists say the H5N1 virus is mutating steadily and may eventually acquire the changes it needs to be easily transmitted from human to human. Because people lack any immunity to it, it could sweep the world in weeks or months, killing millions.
Read the whole article at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL138885.htm
(31 Jan, 2006)
Bombs Hit Christian Targets
Car bombs exploded in quick succession Sunday near four Christian churches and the office of the Vatican envoy, killing three people and raising new concerns about sectarian tensions.
Three people died in the bombing at the Church of the Virgin in Kirkuk, police said. At least nine people were injured in the bombings.
"This was a reaction from the al-Zarqawi people against Christians who they believe support the U.S. military in Iraq," senior Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Adeeb said.
A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Naseer al-Ani, called the bombings "terrorist acts."
At least 17 other people were killed in other violence around the country.
Read the whole article on www.kurd.org (Jan 29, 2006)
posted by Anonymous @ 2/01/2006 10:00:00 AM
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