The Father of the Girl Who Died Due To Bird Flu is Also Positive For the Virus, Cambodian Authorities Carry Out a Close Contact Test

Illustration of poultry examination. (Wikimedia Commons/USAID Vietnam)

JAKARTA - Cambodia has tested at least 12 people to see if they are infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Health Ministry said, after an 11-year-old girl died this week of the virus, in the country's first human-to-human transmission in nearly a decade. final.

The victim's father, who was part of a group closely related to the girl in a province east of the capital Phnom Penh, tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in a statement on Friday, reported Reuters 24 February.

Furthermore, the statement did not disclose the test results of other people in the group, nor did it detail how the victim's father contracted the virus commonly known as bird flu.

The girl's case is the first known human infection with the H5N1 strain in the Southeast Asian country since 2014, Minister Bunheng said 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.

As his condition worsened, he was transferred to the National Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh, but died on Wednesday, the health ministry said.

Since early last year, bird flu has hit farms worldwide, resulting in the death of more than 200 million birds from the disease or mass culling, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said recently.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month noted the spread of H5N1 influenza in mammals, 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 briefing, but recent reports of infections in minks, otters and seals "should be closely monitored".

Meanwhile Cambodian health authorities urged people not to handle dead or sick animals and birds. As well as calling the hotline if anyone suspects they have been infected by this disease.