Feb 26, 2013 (CIDRAP News) – An official from Cambodia's health ministry said today that a 35-year-old man died yesterday from H5N1 avian flu, marking the country's ninth case and eighth death from the disease so far this year, according to news reports.
Ly Sovann, deputy head of the health ministry's disease surveillance bureau, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the man was from Kampong Cham province and died last night at a Phnom Penh hospital. Sovann said the man had eaten two sick ducks before he became ill earlier this month.
In all nine cases this year, the patients had contact with poultry or poultry deaths were reported in their area before they got sick. The man's case, if confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO), would raise the country's total number of H5N1 cases to 30, including 27 deaths.
Cambodian livestock officials have also reported five H5N1 outbreaks in village poultry in 2013, which have killed more than 3,000 birds so far and prompted the culling of nearly 7,000 more to control the spread of the disease, according to previous reports from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Two of the most recent outbreaks occurred in Kampong Cham, the province in which the man lived.
Sovann told AFP that officials are worried about the pace of human H5N1 cases in Cambodia. He also said officials have learned that people in some villages aren't reporting poultry deaths and that in some instances, there have been delays in notifying officials.
Sonny Krishnan, with the communications department of the WHO office in Cambodia, told AFP that the WHO is keeping "a close watch" on the situation.
Of the nine cases from Cambodia this year, seven have been in children. The only survivor was an 8-month-old boy.
Cambodia's health minister has urged parents to keep children away from sick and dead poultry and has warned people about home slaughtering poultry and eating sick and dead birds.
If the WHO confirms this Cambodian death and one from last week, as well as two recently reported H5N1 deaths in Chinese adults, the global number of WHO-confirmed H5N1 infections would grow to 622, including 371 deaths.
See also:
Feb 21 CIDRAP News story "Cambodia reports another H5N1 death"
