Iraq woman dies of suspected bird flu - officials

BAGHDAD, March 2 (Reuters) A woman has died of a suspected case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the province around the town of Nassiriya in southern Iraq, the Iraqi government said today.

Further tests were being carried out in Baghdad and Cairo, the government said.

Dr. Ibtisam Aziz, a spokeswoman for the Higher Committee on Bird Flu in Iraq, said that suspected cases in the Shula area of Baghdad are still under medical care, with laboratory results yet to be received.

Other cases of infection from samples taken from two villages in Kefry, in Dayala province, northeast of Baghdad have prompted the killing of infected poultry and the sterilization of villages, Aziz said.

One other suspected patient in Dayala province was sent to the health centre in Said Jabir village.

Two fatal cases of human bird flu -- in a teenage girl and her uncle last month -- were previously confirmed in the northern province of Sulaimaniya, close to the border with Turkey.

REUTERS OM PM1832