Four dead from bird flu in Cambodia

(Photo: AFP)

29 January 2013
By Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh
Radio Australia

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says four Cambodians have died from avian flu in January.

The organisation is concerned that the deaths from avian flu - known formally as H5N1 - and the infection of another person come in the first four weeks of the year.

Avian flu can pass from infected chickens and ducks to humans.

Since it was first discovered in humans in 1997 it has killed around 360 of the approximately 600 people known to have been infected.

Experts fear it could mutate into a virus that spreads between humans.

In Cambodia health teams have responded by going to villages where the five patients lived, testing residents and culling infected poultry.

The government is also using television and radio to explain how to keep safe, including making sure children wash their hands and stay away from sick birds.

Avian flu was first recorded in Cambodia in 2005.

The highest toll was in 2011 when eight people died.