Cambodia reports death of 11-year-old girl from bird flu

PHNOM PENH, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Cambodia has reported that an 11-year-old girl from a province east of the capital Phnom Penh has died after being infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, commonly called bird flu.

It is the first known human infection with the H5N1 strain in the Southeast Asian country since 2014, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in a statement on Thursday.

The girl from Prey Veng province was diagnosed with bird flu after falling ill with a high fever and cough on February 16, the statement said.

When her condition deteriorated, she was transferred to the National Children’s Hospital in Phnom Penh for treatment, but died on Wednesday, the health ministry said.

Since the beginning of last year, bird flu has ravaged farms around the world, killing more than 200 million birds because of disease or mass culling, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) recently told Reuters.

THE World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month noted the mammalian spread of H5N1 flu, but said the risk to humans remained low.

H5N1 has been spreading among poultry and wild birds for 25 years, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing, but recent reports of infections in mink, otters and sea lions “need to be watched closely”.

Cambodian health authorities have urged people not to handle dead or sick animals and birds and to contact a hotline if anyone suspects they have been infected with the disease.

Reuters staff reports; Written by Ed Davies; Editing by Jamie Freed

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.