37 anthrax cases in Iraq

Sulaimaniya, Iraq: At least 37 people have been infected with anthrax in northern Iraq in the country's first outbreak of the disease since the 1980s, the health minister in the Kurdish autonomous region said on Sunday.

Health Minister Ziryan Othman said the disease appeared to have been passed on from livestock. The first human case of the outbreak was discovered in remote Dahuk province last month.

None of the reported cases had yet proven fatal, he said.

Othman said the authorities have ordered that infected animals be slaughtered and buried, and animals not yet infected should be vaccinated.