H1N1 FLU PANDEMIC: 1st domestic case in Cambodia

Mam Bun Heng (left) said One Cambodian national and one Filipino traveller had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus. --PHOTO: AP

June 27, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA'S health minister on Saturday announced the country's first domestic case of swine flu, days after its first infections were reported among visiting American students.

One Cambodian national and one Filipino traveller had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus, Mam Bun Heng told AFP, bringing the country's toll to six.

'(They) are now being taken good care of at hospital and are getting better,' he told AFP on Saturday.

'We are working hard to... prevent more domestic infections within our country,' he added.

Four US students on a school trip in Cambodia were confirmed this week as the country's first cases of the virus.

Globally, the World Health Organization says nearly 60,000 cases of the disease have now been recorded, with 263 deaths.

Three Potential H1N1 Flu Carries Sought

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 May 2009

Cambodian health officials are looking for three US-Cambodians who were aboard a South Korean flight Sunday after one passenger who deplaned in Incheon was found carrying H1N1 flu.

Officials in Cambodia emphasized that the threat of infection was low, but were searching for the three, who they thought might be in Kampot province.

South Korea put out a warning Wednesday, saying the three had been among 93 on an Asiana Airlines flight from Seattle to Incheon, South Korea, before transiting for a Phnom Penh flight.

One woman from the first flight was quarantined in South Korea and confirmed to have the H1N1 virus, sometimes called swine flu.

Cambodia on alert for swine flu

PHNOM PENH, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The Health Ministry of Cambodia on Tuesday will equip scanners at the Phnom Penh and the Siem Reap international airports to check travelers' body temperature against possible entry of swine flu, said an official.

"We will equip scanners to target people who have temperature and breath problems related with the deadly swine flu," said Sok Touch, director of the Anti-communicable Disease Department of the ministry.

"We also observe all the people who once traveled to the infected areas of this outbreak," he added.

In addition, "we appeal to the people who catch (traditional) flu to go to hospital for diagnosis and treatment," he said.

Cambodia has noted that swine flu is danger for all of us, as it can be transmitted from human being to human being now, he said.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry of Cambodia will use the existing equipment and system for combating bird flu to monitor swine flu, he said.

The ministry will cooperate with the World Health Organization to take actions on the pig-farming industry if necessary, but the very next step will focus on travelers from the infected areas, he said.

So far, there has been no sign of swine flu contamination on human and pigs in the kingdom, he added.