Government reiterates readiness to fight bird flu

The government has said it is prepared to fight any new cases of bird flu and that the situation is under control. “After the initial fright we had over the first two cases and the dozens of suspected cases, we’ve structured our institutions to fight any new incidence of the disease," said senior health ministry official Khalid Youssef. According to Youssef, all the country's governorates, as well as the Kurdistan regional government, are cooperating to develop awareness campaigns and appropriate medical training programmes. “We’re helping people understand what the disease is and to be alert to any incidence of the virus in their communities,” said Youssef. “Even children are learning how to fight it.” A total of 2 million heads of poultry, including chicken and ducks, have been culled countrywide on the orders of the Ministry of Agriculture. Hundreds of farmers have already received reimbursements for their losses as part of a US $35-million compensation programme provided by the government. "I’m very happy because they paid for all the chickens and ducks they culled on my farm," said Humman Ali, a farmer on the outskirts of Baghdad. While the agriculture ministry declined to divulge the exact number of families to have been compensated, officials said that most were from the Kurdistan area near the Turkish border, where nearly a million birds have been culled since January. Only two human cases of the H5N1 avian virus have been reported in Iraq to date. The first was a 15 year-old girl who died from the virus on 17 January in the northern province of Sulaimaniyah. Her death was followed by that of her 39 year-old uncle, who succumbed to the disease a month later. On 28 March, the World Health Organization declared Iraq free from bird flu. Since then, no new cases have been reported.