A Cambodian vendor weighs chickens at a Phnom Penh market April 6, 2006. Bird flu has killed a 12-year-old boy in Cambodia, the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's sixth victim, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Chor SokuntheaApril 6 (Bloomberg) -- The latest person to die from avian influenza in Cambodia had exposure to poultry, the World Health Organization said, as test results are awaited today on whether a dead swan found in the U.K. has the deadly H5N1 virus.
A 12-year-old boy from the province of Prey Veng, which is adjacent to Vietnam, died earlier this week at a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, Michael O'Leary, the WHO's Cambodia representative, said today. Samples from the boy tested positive to the H5N1 virus at the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, he said.
"This is further evidence that the virus has been circulating in Cambodia," O'Leary said. "There were poultry deaths in the area, and the boy had contact with dead chickens."
In the U.K., preliminary findings on a swan discovered at a coastal location in Scotland show that it had the H5 virus, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement yesterday. Germany yesterday detected its first case of the H5N1 virus in domestic poultry.
Tests in the U.K. "have found highly pathogenic H5 avian flu in a sample from a swan," the environment department said in a statement yesterday on its Web site.
"The exact strain of the virus is not yet known. Tests are continuing and a further result is expected" later today, it said. No infections have previously been reported in U.K. birds of the H5N1 strain of the virus, according to the department.
Cambodian Case
While specimens from the boy who died in Cambodia will be sent outside the country for further study, the UN health agency now considers the case is confirmed as the sixth human bird flu case recorded in the Southeast Asian nation, O'Leary said in a telephone interview today.
Cambodia's new human case is the second this year, after a three-year-old girl from another southern Cambodian province died in March, according to the WHO. The four cases previous to that, also all fatalities and all from a southern province bordering Vietnam, were in the first half of 2005.
"Where birds are dying of avian influenza and there's close human contact, occasional cases can occur, and that's what we're seeing," O'Leary said. "We don't see any evidence of human-to- human transmission."
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem signed a letter tightening control over transportation in border provinces in an attempt to stop smuggling of poultry and poultry products, including provinces bordering Cambodia, Tien Phong newspaper reported April 4.
Vietnam, which hasn't reported a case of bird flu in domestic poultry since December or in humans since November, also shares land borders with Laos and China.
Bird Smuggling
Tests on some chickens in a flock confiscated by Vietnamese authorities after being smuggled into the country from China showed evidence of either current or past infection with avian influenza, according to Le Van Tao, deputy director of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's institute of animal health.
Test results are being awaited on other chickens confiscated after being smuggled into the country from China, Tao said.
Illegally imported chicken from China is creating the danger of a new bird flu outbreak in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported March 17, citing Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan.
The risk of an antigen shift of the avian flu virus into the human population poses a risk to an otherwise positive Asian growth outlook, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released today.
Estimates suggest an influenza pandemic "would lead to a severe economic shock in the Asia and Pacific region, with economic consequences in the range of $100 billion to $300 billion," the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook 2006. "At its worst, this would essentially halt economic growth for one year and throw the world into an economic recession."
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jason Folkmanis in Ho Chi Minh City at folkmanis@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 6, 2006 01:26 EDT
A 12-year-old boy from the province of Prey Veng, which is adjacent to Vietnam, died earlier this week at a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, Michael O'Leary, the WHO's Cambodia representative, said today. Samples from the boy tested positive to the H5N1 virus at the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, he said.
"This is further evidence that the virus has been circulating in Cambodia," O'Leary said. "There were poultry deaths in the area, and the boy had contact with dead chickens."
In the U.K., preliminary findings on a swan discovered at a coastal location in Scotland show that it had the H5 virus, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement yesterday. Germany yesterday detected its first case of the H5N1 virus in domestic poultry.
Tests in the U.K. "have found highly pathogenic H5 avian flu in a sample from a swan," the environment department said in a statement yesterday on its Web site.
"The exact strain of the virus is not yet known. Tests are continuing and a further result is expected" later today, it said. No infections have previously been reported in U.K. birds of the H5N1 strain of the virus, according to the department.
Cambodian Case
While specimens from the boy who died in Cambodia will be sent outside the country for further study, the UN health agency now considers the case is confirmed as the sixth human bird flu case recorded in the Southeast Asian nation, O'Leary said in a telephone interview today.
Cambodia's new human case is the second this year, after a three-year-old girl from another southern Cambodian province died in March, according to the WHO. The four cases previous to that, also all fatalities and all from a southern province bordering Vietnam, were in the first half of 2005.
"Where birds are dying of avian influenza and there's close human contact, occasional cases can occur, and that's what we're seeing," O'Leary said. "We don't see any evidence of human-to- human transmission."
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem signed a letter tightening control over transportation in border provinces in an attempt to stop smuggling of poultry and poultry products, including provinces bordering Cambodia, Tien Phong newspaper reported April 4.
Vietnam, which hasn't reported a case of bird flu in domestic poultry since December or in humans since November, also shares land borders with Laos and China.
Bird Smuggling
Tests on some chickens in a flock confiscated by Vietnamese authorities after being smuggled into the country from China showed evidence of either current or past infection with avian influenza, according to Le Van Tao, deputy director of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's institute of animal health.
Test results are being awaited on other chickens confiscated after being smuggled into the country from China, Tao said.
Illegally imported chicken from China is creating the danger of a new bird flu outbreak in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported March 17, citing Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan.
The risk of an antigen shift of the avian flu virus into the human population poses a risk to an otherwise positive Asian growth outlook, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released today.
Estimates suggest an influenza pandemic "would lead to a severe economic shock in the Asia and Pacific region, with economic consequences in the range of $100 billion to $300 billion," the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook 2006. "At its worst, this would essentially halt economic growth for one year and throw the world into an economic recession."
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jason Folkmanis in Ho Chi Minh City at folkmanis@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 6, 2006 01:26 EDT
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