A municipal official collects poultry for destruction in a suburban of Istanbul, 13 January (epa)
18 January 2006 -- Health officials in northern Iraq have asked Jordanian researchers to test for the lethal bird flu virus H5N1 in the body of a 14-year-old girl who died on 17 January in the Kurdish city of Al-Sulaymaniyah.
The health minister in the regional government, Muhammad Khashnov, said Tijan Abdel-Qader died on arrival at the hospital on 17 January after falling ill on 2 January in her home town of Raniya, which lies close to the Turkish and Iranian borders.
An Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman confirmed the suspected case and a senior central government health official in Baghdad confirmed that a team has been dispatched to investigate.
(Reuters)