Avian Flu - What we need to know

Two babies die in Cambodia from flu

Two infants have died in Cambodia from influenza, part of an outbreak that has hospitalized more than 1,000 children, a doctor said Thursday.

Deputy Health Minister Heng Tay Kry on Wednesday described the number of influenza cases as "unprecedented."

He said the illness appears to be a form of human flu, not the avian influenza that has killed dozens of people in neighboring countries and has health officials on edge over concerns the bird flu virus could mutate to more easily infect humans.

[...] Megge Miller, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization in Cambodia, agreed the number of cases was abnormally high, and described the situation as an "outbreak." Samples from some sick children have tested positive for influenza B virus, which is a milder disease compared to bird flu, she said.

Source.

Cambodia confirms fourth avian flu death

From the Daily Telegraph:

"Samples taken from the woman were sent to Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City for testing and they were confirmed positive for avian influenza A/H5 virus," the ministry and World Health Organisation said in a joint statement.

Vietnamese health officials said last month she had died of the virus, which has also killed 36 Vietnamese and 12 Thais since the end of 2003, but the Cambodian Government had been waiting for confirmation since then.

The victim was a high school student from Kampong Trach district in southeastern Kampot province, which borders Vietnam, where she travelled to seek medical treatment on April 19 and died shortly afterwards.

She also ran a small business selling food, including chicken, in her village. There were no reports of ill poultry in her village but some poultry died at the village where her school was located where she was likely to have been infected, the statement said.

New suspected case in Cambodia

A 20-year-old Cambodian girl has been rushed to a Vietnamese hospital with suspected bird flu, state media said on Wednesday.

The schoolgirl from Kampot province was taken across the nearby Vietnamese border suffering a high fever and respiratory problems, symptoms of the H5N1 virus that has killed 51 people in Asia, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

Full story.

WHO Cambodia Update

From today’s World Health Organization update:

The Ministry of Health in Cambodia confirmed that an 8-year-old girl from Kampot province who died on 7 April, was the country’s third case of avian influenza.

The girl became ill with a fever on the 29th March. Her condition deteriorated rapidly on 7 April, when she was taken to a district referral hospital and then transferred to Kuntha Bopha Hospital in Phnom Penh, where she died. Samples from the girl tested positive for avian influenza H5N1 virus at the Pasteur Institute, Phnom Penh.

Samples were collected from four close contacts who cared for her at the village and nine medical contacts from Kampot and Phnom Penh. All have tested negative for the H5N1 virus.

Second case of avian flu death in Cambodia

Cambodia and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday confirmed the country's second man died of avian influenza. In a joint statement, Cambodia's Ministry of Health and the WHO confirmed that the 28-year-old man, from Kampot Province, died of H5 virus. It said that the man, died on March 22, developed symptoms of bird flu on March 17 and was hospitalized in Phnom Penh on March 21. The laboratory tests, on the same day, by the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh confirmed that the man was infected with H5 avian influenza virus.

Read more here.  Here is an article on how little is known about the spread of avian flu in Cambodia.