A Cambodian health worker sprays disinfect at Korng Pisey district in Kampong Speu province. (Photo AFP)Posted: 26 March 2006
PHNOM PENH: The World Health Organisation has expressed "great concern" over Cambodia's latest bird flu outbreak after three more suspected cases were hospitalised following last week's death of a child from H5N1.
"It's a great concern, it's a serious problem ... we have to take this as seriously as possible," WHO representative Michael O'Leary told AFP.
Three people -- one adult and two children -- are being treated for fever and respiratory problems at a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, health officials say.
The suspected cases come from a village neighbouring that of three-year-old Mon Vuthy, who died Tuesday after falling ill with the H5N1 strain of the virus.
She was the first bird flu death in Cambodia this year and the fifth since 2003.
Five other people who had contact with the suspected cases are also being tested, said Ly Sovann, head of the health ministry's department of infectious diseases.
It is unknown how the three might have become infected with the deadly virus, he said.
Agriculture ministry officials said tests are being done on poultry in the area, but no traces of H5N1 have been found so far in any birds, despite the deaths of hundreds in the area earlier this month.
This is particularly troubling, O'Leary said, because if the three people are found to have bird flu it would mean they had some exposure to birds that "we are not aware of".
Seven other villagers thought to have caught bird flu after the girl died tested negative for the virus, Ly Sovann said Saturday.
"All the seven suspected patients are negative ... all of them are better," he said.
The seven, all from the girl's village, fell ill with fevers around the same time that the girl died.
Officials think the toddler became infected after playing with sick chickens in Phum Prich village in Kompong Speu province, 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of the capital.
Cambodia's last outbreak of bird flu in humans occurred in early 2005, while the virus has been found in ducks in eastern Kompong Cham province twice since February, triggering the slaughter of hundreds of birds.
Thousands of birds smuggled in from neighbouring Vietnam, where 42 people have died from bird flu since December 2004, have also been destroyed in recent months.
Most poultry in Cambodia is raised on small farms or in backyards, making it difficult to prevent the spread of the virus.
World Health Organisation figures show that bird flu has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, mostly in Asia.
- AFP/ir
"It's a great concern, it's a serious problem ... we have to take this as seriously as possible," WHO representative Michael O'Leary told AFP.
Three people -- one adult and two children -- are being treated for fever and respiratory problems at a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, health officials say.
The suspected cases come from a village neighbouring that of three-year-old Mon Vuthy, who died Tuesday after falling ill with the H5N1 strain of the virus.
She was the first bird flu death in Cambodia this year and the fifth since 2003.
Five other people who had contact with the suspected cases are also being tested, said Ly Sovann, head of the health ministry's department of infectious diseases.
It is unknown how the three might have become infected with the deadly virus, he said.
Agriculture ministry officials said tests are being done on poultry in the area, but no traces of H5N1 have been found so far in any birds, despite the deaths of hundreds in the area earlier this month.
This is particularly troubling, O'Leary said, because if the three people are found to have bird flu it would mean they had some exposure to birds that "we are not aware of".
Seven other villagers thought to have caught bird flu after the girl died tested negative for the virus, Ly Sovann said Saturday.
"All the seven suspected patients are negative ... all of them are better," he said.
The seven, all from the girl's village, fell ill with fevers around the same time that the girl died.
Officials think the toddler became infected after playing with sick chickens in Phum Prich village in Kompong Speu province, 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of the capital.
Cambodia's last outbreak of bird flu in humans occurred in early 2005, while the virus has been found in ducks in eastern Kompong Cham province twice since February, triggering the slaughter of hundreds of birds.
Thousands of birds smuggled in from neighbouring Vietnam, where 42 people have died from bird flu since December 2004, have also been destroyed in recent months.
Most poultry in Cambodia is raised on small farms or in backyards, making it difficult to prevent the spread of the virus.
World Health Organisation figures show that bird flu has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, mostly in Asia.
- AFP/ir
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