Bird Flu now in Iraq

CAIRO, Egypt Jan 30, 2006 — A 15-year-old girl who died earlier this month in northern Iraq was a victim of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first known case of the disease in the country, a U.N. official and the region's health minister said Monday. The U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit in the Egyptian capital conducted the tests determining the cause of death, using blood samples from the girl, the U.N. official said. He refused to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. The official had been supervising the examination of samples sent by the government in northern Iraq. He said 30 other samples from northern Iraq were being tested. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1556338