Iraq town seems helpless against deadly bird flu

[ECH1969]

If international experts wonder how difficult it will be to educate Iraqis about bird flu, they should visit the wastelands of Amara, where children play among the dead fowl.

Iraqi health officials are investigating four suspected human cases of the avian virus in the southeastern city and have ordered mass culling of birds to contain a possible outbreak.

In waste ground where thousands of the culled birds have been dumped, about 15 children jumped up and down, tied fowl to sticks and waved them in the air, oblivious to the risks.

The avian virus, which has already claimed the life of an Iraqi teenager, was previously thought to have been confined to the girl's village in the country's largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL053212.htm

[pocket]

1. Syrian paper accuses Israel of having spread bird flu to kill Arabs

take with a grain of salt or two