Bird flu doing the rounds in Cambodia again

Aug 14 2006

According to officials in Cambodia a second outbreak of bird flu has occurred there this year in southeast Prey Veng, the same province where the H5N1 virus killed a boy in April, about 20 km from the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

Senior Agriculture Ministry official Nou Muth says the virus is back and was confirmed in more than 1,300 ducks that died in Prey Veng province, 70 km southeast of Phnom Penh, but there were no immediate reports of human infections.

Nou Muth says they have announced the outbreak in order to alert villagers not to handle dead poultry.

Virtually all cases of the 130 deaths from the the H5N1 virus, including six in Cambodia, have been contracted through close proximity to infected birds.

Although the virus has not yet demonstrated the ability to mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, experts fear this could happen, causing a pandemic that might kill millions of people.

This is more feasible in a poor country like Cambodia, which is still recovering from 30 years of civil war and where health systems are basic.

Nou Muth says bird flu is still an issue in the country and they are concerned that villagers in the affected area continue to sell their chickens or ducks to others secretly.

An agriculture official says several hundred domestic ducks, which can carry the H5N1 virus without necessarily showing symptoms, had been culled in within 3 km of the outbreak.

Cambodia's neighbours Thailand and Laos have both recently reported outbreaks of the virus and have also reinvigorated campaigns to control it.

According to the authorities measures have been taken and no outbreaks of the virus have been found in any other areas and no humans have been infected.

To date the H5N1 virus has killed at least 138 people, made many more sick and has been responsible for the deaths of millions of birds and poultry.