Vietnamese girl in hospital with bird flu - TV

Tue Jan 6, 2009

HANOI (Reuters) - A five-year-old Vietnamese girl who ate poultry has been infected with bird flu, the first human case reported in the country this year, state-run television said on Tuesday.

The patient from the northern province of Thanh Hoa has been hospitalised after eating poultry, and dead poultry was also found in her neighbourhood, the Vietnam Television station said in its noon broadcast.

Tests last Saturday confirmed the girl had the H5N1 bird flu virus, it said.

Last month bird flu resurfaced in poultry in the north, killing ducks and chickens.

Five Vietnamese died of bird flu in 2008 out of six reported H5N1 infections and all were found in northern Vietnam during the first quarter of the year, when spring cool temperature allows the virus to thrive best.

The H5N1 strain has killed 247 people globally among the 391 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.

Before the latest case in Vietnam, WHO said Vietnam had 106 infections, the second highest number of cases among 15 countries with known human cases after Indonesia.

Kandal Man Hit With Bird Flu

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
12 December 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

The Ministry of Health on Friday confirmed Cambodia’s eighth case of avian influenza, the first case this year, in a Kandal province resident.

Teng Sopheak, 19, from Kadal Steung district, was diagnosed with the disease after consuming poultry at the annual Water Festival, falling ill with a fever, cough, muscle aches and a soar throat. He is now recovering at Calmette hospital.

The H5N1 virus, which typically occurs in chicken and other birds, is a concern to global health officials because of its potential to mutate into a more readily contagious form.

Health officials said Friday field investigation teams from the ministry were conducting house-to-house searches in the affected area in search of people with bird flu symptoms and are conducting a detailed investigation of poultry deaths in the village.

Cambodia’s seven other cases were fatal, while 246 people have so far died from the disease worldwide.

Bird flu case detected in Cambodia

Dec 12, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian health workers converged on a town near the capital Phnom Penh after a man was diagnosed with avian flu, officials said Friday.

The 19-year-old man from Kandal Province fell ill on November 28 and was being treated in a Phnom Penh hospital, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation said in a joint statement.

The statement said field teams were searching for other infected residents in the town and the Ministry of Agriculture was investigating poultry deaths in the area.

The unidentified man was diagnosed on Thursday. It is the eighth case of bird flu detected in Cambodia since 2005.