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Girl, 3, dies of bird flu
24/03/2006 09:03 - (SA)
Phnom Penh - A three-year-old Cambodian girl has died of H5N1 bird flu, say government health officials and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday.
Officials said the girl, who lived in a village in Kampong Speu province, about 60km west of Phnom Penh, had been in contact with sick and dying chickens.
WHO spokesperson Megge Miller said: "She has been confirmed positive with H5N1." She said that tests had been carried out at Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh and there was no reason to doubt their accuracy.
The death of the girl, whose identity was not being released, for family reasons, took the human death toll from bird flu in the impoverished southeast Asian nation to five since the virus first landed in the region in late 2003.
Miller said seven other people in the village who had either been in contact with the girl or sick poultry were showing some signs of fever, although there was no cause for panic.
Miller said: "They have a fever, but no cough. We are keeping an eye on them. None required hospitalisation at the moment.
"It looks like another one of those isolated incidents. There aren't any alarm bells at the moment."
WHO said that before the latest incident, 184 people were known to have been infected with H5N1 since 2003, of whom 103 have died.
- Reuters
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