Cambodia will have to wait at least a week before experts and supplies arrive to help fight avian influenza, a deadly disease that could spread rapidly through the country, officials said Monday.
“Cambodia is very weak in terms of human resources, equipment for transport and communication,” said Jean-Claude LeVasseur, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s country representative. LeVasseur said he hopes international organizations will send experts by next week to assess the situation and possibly authorize funding.
A French laboratory confirmed on Friday that chickens near Phnom Penh died earlier this month from bird flu. The disease has also infected poultry in Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.
Government officials are saying only one farm, located in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, is infected. But one farm worker, Cham Smey, 20, said Sunday that 100 chickens have died on his farm, which is located across the street from the farm where the disease was identified.
The ministry has quarantined both farms, said Suon Sothoeun, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health and Production at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that the ministry sent samples to France from three more farms suspected of having bird flu.
But Stephanie Desvaux, an adviser to the department, said only one other farm is suspected of carrying the disease. Samples from that farm are being tested, she said. Suon Sothoeun said samples from several farms have been sent to France, though they are not suspected of the illness.
Inspections of farms 3 km from the original farm revealed no infected animals, said Kao Phal, director of the Department of Animal Health and Production.
No humans have been infected with the disease in Cambodia, but six people have died in Vietnam and one in Thailand.
The Ministry of Health already has some stockpiles of equipment to protect humans from disease, Minister Hong Sun Huot said Monday. Aid organizations have ordered supplies—costing “tens of thousands”—including face masks and disinfectant, that could arrive in one to three weeks, said Sean Tobin, a medical epidemiologist at the World Health Organization.
