.Control of Bird Flu Difficult in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 9, 2006 (AP)— Some Iraqi farmers are letting their birds loose rather than slaughter them and the lack of a proper shipping container has kept the tissue sample of a man suspected of dying of bird flu sitting in Baghdad despite reports it was being tested abroad.
Poor communications, scarce equipment and the dangers of the insurgency are all plaguing efforts to combat bird flu in Iraq.
In Nigeria, meanwhile, the deadly H5N1 strain has been detected in two more northern states and has been killing birds some 100,000 for weeks, Nigerian authorities said Thursday, raising fears the disease will spread elsewhere in Africa.
Officials say containing the spread of bird flu in Iraq may be beyond the capabilities of health authorities in some parts of the country, particularly volatile Anbar province, center stage of the insurgency.
"Iraq is a special case and has its unique challenges that are especially difficult, obviously because it is a complex environment," World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said from neighboring Jordan.
So far, Iraq's only confirmed human case is a 15-year-old girl who died Jan. 17 in the northern Kurdistan region, Iraq's most stable area with a functioning local administration.
But Iraq has been slow to send samples of other suspect cases including the girl's uncle, who died Jan. 27 to WHO-certified laboratories in London and Cairo, Egypt, despite saying for more than a week that the shipment had been delivered.
"We didn't have the containers to ship the samples and without them, they wouldn't have been accepted for shipment," Dr. Ibtisam Aziz Ali, spokeswoman for a government committee handling the bird flu crisis, acknowledged Thursday.
She did not say why it had taken so long for Iraq to obtain the containers or explain earlier statements that the samples had been sent. Thompson said the U.N. health agency would send Iraq several containers.
Partial testing of tissue samples taken from humans suspected of having bird flu can be performed at Baghdad's central laboratories, but final verification of the presence of the H5N1 strain must be done by a WHO-approved lab.
ABC
If you ask me this bird flu is the biggest risk we face in Iraq. It's going to be the biggest story in the next few months. If there is a big outbreak they are going to have to quarantine all the soldiers, all the contractors, everyone. Not to mention the little problem with Iraqi borders, this thing has the potential to kill more people than the war itself, decimate the economy and bring a dictator back to the throne in Iraq, of even worse, to give OBL and friends free run of the place.
I have no idea what needs to be done, but someone better be thinking long and hard about this thing. Our ability to defend ourselves could be on the line.
Poor communications, scarce equipment and the dangers of the insurgency are all plaguing efforts to combat bird flu in Iraq.
In Nigeria, meanwhile, the deadly H5N1 strain has been detected in two more northern states and has been killing birds some 100,000 for weeks, Nigerian authorities said Thursday, raising fears the disease will spread elsewhere in Africa.
Officials say containing the spread of bird flu in Iraq may be beyond the capabilities of health authorities in some parts of the country, particularly volatile Anbar province, center stage of the insurgency.
"Iraq is a special case and has its unique challenges that are especially difficult, obviously because it is a complex environment," World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said from neighboring Jordan.
So far, Iraq's only confirmed human case is a 15-year-old girl who died Jan. 17 in the northern Kurdistan region, Iraq's most stable area with a functioning local administration.
But Iraq has been slow to send samples of other suspect cases including the girl's uncle, who died Jan. 27 to WHO-certified laboratories in London and Cairo, Egypt, despite saying for more than a week that the shipment had been delivered.
"We didn't have the containers to ship the samples and without them, they wouldn't have been accepted for shipment," Dr. Ibtisam Aziz Ali, spokeswoman for a government committee handling the bird flu crisis, acknowledged Thursday.
She did not say why it had taken so long for Iraq to obtain the containers or explain earlier statements that the samples had been sent. Thompson said the U.N. health agency would send Iraq several containers.
Partial testing of tissue samples taken from humans suspected of having bird flu can be performed at Baghdad's central laboratories, but final verification of the presence of the H5N1 strain must be done by a WHO-approved lab.
ABC
If you ask me this bird flu is the biggest risk we face in Iraq. It's going to be the biggest story in the next few months. If there is a big outbreak they are going to have to quarantine all the soldiers, all the contractors, everyone. Not to mention the little problem with Iraqi borders, this thing has the potential to kill more people than the war itself, decimate the economy and bring a dictator back to the throne in Iraq, of even worse, to give OBL and friends free run of the place.
I have no idea what needs to be done, but someone better be thinking long and hard about this thing. Our ability to defend ourselves could be on the line.
posted by madtom at 6:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home