Bird-flu death in Cambodia prompts warning in Thailand
All government health agencies should increase monitoring for bird flu after an 11-year-old girl died of the disease in eastern Cambodia on Wednesday, a virologist at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology said on Thursday.
The government should intensify its monitoring for the H5N1 – or bird flu – virus, Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana wrote on Facebook.
Anan referred to a case reported by the Cambodian Ministry of Health’s Communicable Disease Control Department. The girl from a village in Prey Veng province – which borders Vietnam – developed feverish symptoms on February 16, according to the report. She had a cough and sore throat, and her temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius before she died, the report said.
She was transferred from a provincial hospital to the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh after her condition deteriorated.
She was diagnosed with H5N1 infection by Cambodia’s National Institute of Public Health on Tuesday and died on Wednesday, according to Xinhua.
Cases of flu viruses spreading from animals to humans in neighbouring countries should prompt Thai officials to increase monitoring for the viruses, Anan said.
