Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Bird flu on Cambodian border [with Thailand]

1/03/2011
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Bangkok Post

Health authorities are on high alert for bird flu along the Thai-Cambodian border after two Cambodians were reported to have died of the avian virus, Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Paijit Warachit said on Tuesday.

The two confirmed cases were a 21-year-old mother and her 11-month son.

They were sent for hospitalisation at Mongkolburi Hospital in Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province after they showed flu-like symptoms after eating a chicken that had bird flu.


The mother died on Feb 13 and the son died on Feb 15, Mr Paijit said .

Thai health authorities were closely monitoring the outbreak along the border. So far there was no report of any poultry having died of the H5N1 strain of the virus in Sa Kaew province, close to the Cambodian outbreak, he said.

Three Cambodians are now reported to have died in the latest outbreak of bird flu, according to the World Health Organisation report as of Feb 28.

There has not been a human bird flu case in Thailand since July 2006. A total of 27 cases were confirmed, with 17 deaths reported, during a series of bird flu outbreaks from 2004 to 2006.

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